The Taste of Strawberries
by ilovenutella99
Summary: There's no way to undo the past. I learned that when District 12 went up in flames, ash, and smoke. It became even more true when I couldn't even save the one thing that meant the most to me. Madge. Hell, I couldn't save her. Maybe, though, just maybe, things aren't what they seem.
1. Chapter 1

Everyone told me to just pick up right where I left off and move on. It's not easy to do that, not when you loved someone who is dead. Not when you saw their house go up in flames. Not when everything you see reminds you of that person. Every gleam of light reflecting off of something reminds me of her golden hair, the kind that you couldn't help but tangle your hands in. In every flash of blue, I see her eyes, shining and powerful that keep you captivated.

Even Thom told me to move on, there's other girl's in the world, he said. That's the thing: there's no other girl who can even compare to her. I thought that one day I would marry Katniss, not the Mayor's daughter, but after Katniss left for the Games, she came. Madge. The girl who knows just how to calm me down, the girl who drove me insane. The girl who tasted like the strawberries I brought her, the girl who had so much passion and knew what she wanted. The girl who didn't care where I was from, the girl who loved me for me. I know I didn't deserve her, hell, I really didn't deserve her. She didn't care. She just wanted to be with me.

At first, I didn't know what to think of her. She was showing up everywhere, always with me. During the 74th Games, I kind of used her as a filler, and then when Katniss and Mellark (whom I gave that nickname to a long time ago) came home, I pushed her to the curb and pretended that our friendship or whatever we had never happened. When I kissed Katniss, it didn't feel right. It wasn't Madge. I got whipped that same day. And Madge risked her damn life trying to help me, a person who hadn't spoken to her in weeks.

I couldn't ever repay that debt. She couldv'e died, I couldve died, and essentally, I would've been the reason she died. Hell, I am the reason she died. That day, that horrible day when fire rained on everyone and bombs destroyed the place where I grew up, I told her to go back to her house and get her parents and that I would meet them. I told her that I was going to protect her, and keep her safe. It's my fault that she's dead, and she's never coming back. Ever. No matter how many times I wish, and I hope, she's gone.

* * *

My mother asks me about her about a week after we get to District 13.

I freeze with a start and drop my fork into my mushy lunch. I don't meet her eyes. I can't or she'll know. I can't tell her that she's gone, not with everyone here. Not with Posy, or Vick, or Rory, God, Rory would hate me. Madge was a part of our family those last few weeks of her life. I can't say it with Prim, or Mrs. Everdeen. They're losing Katniss, they've already lost Peeta, they can't loose someone else they knew and loved.

Quickly and soundlessly, I push out of my chair and grab my tray. I cross the cafeteria with my mother and Rory hot on my heels and dump my tray in the trash, without even finishing it. I haven't been eating much since we got here. I haven't been sleeping either. Or doing anything for that matter except burying my grief in work. Every night, I have nightmares, about how I couldn't save her, and see her house being smothered in flames, hear her terrified scream and know that I can't help her because she's gone.

I remember exactly how it happened.

_Thom and I had been in charge of counting and labeling everyone as we all boarded the District 13 hovercraft. Thom counted, I named. One by one, people go by, I write their names down, hoping that she somehow got out. It's not until Thom comes to stand beside me that I know she's gone. _

_Thom lost his girl too. Bristol. She was with Madge when hell broke loose._

_I continue writing names, praying that maybe Thom miscounted, or they squeezed in. Their names never come. We hold it together for the rest of the day, buiring our grief, trying to think of anything but that until we get wherever we're going. WE go through meetings, and then comes the fatal time when I have to tell Katniss that her world, our world, is gone. _

_She doesn't believe me, only asks for Prim, to inusre that she's okay. I made sure she was. That's where I went, instead of Madge's house. I got Prim, and my family out. Madge was as good as family, and I couldn't save her._

_Finally, we're assigned compartments. My family and I shuffle into our new home, and my mother sends me to bed, like I'm Posy's age again. I don't mind. It's when my face is in the uncomfortable pillow do I finally let myself break. Silent tears cloud into the pillow. I never cry. The only other time that I've ever cried is when my father was blown to bits in the mines that I was in for less than a year. _

_Madge was mine. She was supposed to be here, laying with me, alive, not buried alive under debri. I never should have let her go alone, never should have let her out of my line of vision. _

_I did though. I let her go, and the last thing I told her was that I loved her. I did, and I still do. I'm never going to get over that it's my fault that she's dead._

"Gale Hawthorne, you get back here!" My mother screams down the hallway, her enraged voice reaching my ears. I don't stop until Rory pounces on my back.

"What the hell, Rory? Get off of me!" I spin, trying to get the boy off of my back.

"No. Ma asked you a question, so you have to answer!" Our mother finally reaches us and puts a hand on my shoulder. Her touch is gentle and soothing.

"Gale? What happened to her?" Her voice makes me want to break all over again, like I did that night when everything was destroyed.

"I don't want to talk about it." I grumble, without facing her.

"Gale, the only way it's going to get any better is if you talk to-"

"She's dead. She's gone. Her house blew up. She's gone." My voice breaks as my mother gasps and Rory looks crushed. I can't take this. I try to get away from my mother but she holds me back.

"What happened?" Her eyes are understanding, but sad. I collapse onto the floor and put my head in my hands, running my hands through my hair. Rory drops down in front of me.

"The day... The day the arena blew up, the day the bombs fell, I told her to go back to her house to get her parents. That I would come for her and get them out. I couldn't make it in time. I saw her house explode. I heard her screaming. It's my fault, Ma." Rory's eyes are as wide as saucers looking at me in shock and my mother has tears pooling in her eyes.

"Did... did you love her?" She whispers. I can only nod. I can't find my voice, I've finally been broken. She was it. It was always her, no one could've replaced her. I thought she was just filling a hole, but she was much much more than that. She was who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, and now she's gone. Forever. And she's never coming back.

* * *

A/N: So I don't really know where I'm going with this, it just came into my head, and then I had to write it down. Will most likely continue, if reviews are good.

Also, in this story, it's Gale's POV, obviously, and just to set things straight, Gale loves Madge, not Katniss. Just thought I'd get that out there. I don't own these lovely characters, Suzanne Collins does.


	2. Chapter 2

_"You know, I can hear you." I tell the girl who had been following me for the past mile and a half. I had been able to hear her loud footsteps crunching the leaves under her feet, but didn't say anything until she snapped a twig that chased the deer I had been following away. _

_I whip my body around to see her jumping behind a tree, blonde hair flying behind her, catching the sunlight and flashing across my face. I sigh heavily before crossing my arms across my chest. "I'm not stupid, Undersee. I know you're there." I grumble out and a blue eye peeks out from behind the tree as she slips out from behind it. _

_"What do you want?" I'll admit, it's kind of shocking to see the Mayor's daughter in the woods. I would think that she would be too proper to go into the woods and ruin her 'pretty dresses'. I remember the comment I made to her, just yesterday, when Katniss was taken from her family, from me. I should've volunteered for the boy, that way, I could protect her. She'd kill me though. If I volunteered with her. Who would take care of our families? No one. That's who. She loves Prim more than anything, and I love her. I don't exactly know how I'm going to get through this._

_I study the girl in front of me. She doesn't brake her gaze, and I find it oddly intimidating. Who knew the Mayor's Daughter could stare for so long? Why doesn't see go back to her mansion and live in peace while the rest of us starve?_

_"I... I want to," She takes a few tentative steps forward, never braking my gaze. It's like she's studying me, just as I'm studying her. "I want to help them."_

* * *

I wake with a start, sweating and shivering at the same time. That was the first time she was in the woods. I had still called her Undersee. I would even a couple of weeks ago, just to annoy her. She'd just laugh and shove me into a wall or something. I find myself laughing internally at the thought of Madge shoving me into a wall. She was strong, in her own way. She had this sense that she knew what was going to happen. She knew Katniss was going to come home, I know that. She taught me to believe it.

Every memory of that day comes back to me, in such vivid detail it's like it's happening in front of me again. I remember her getting hung by her ankle from one of my traps and remember how _pissed _she was and how irritated I was. She looked ready to kill me, but didn't, instead she threw curses at me. I've only seen her that mad once after, and that was the day I yelled at her for bringing me the morphling from her mother.

Looking back on it, I should've just taken her in my arms and never let go, but I didn't want to be used as a charity case. I was too furious to notice that the wonderful, amazing girl standing in front of me at the time loved me.

Which makes me feel even more guilty now. I force the thoughts from my head and sit up, running my hands through my hair. There's no chance I'm getting back to sleep tonight, considering I'd probably have another dream about Madge. It's been a week since my family found out that she's dead and I've barely spoken to them. My mother keeps trying to get me to eat, talk, something, but it just won't come.

The only people I talk to now are Beetee, occasionally Katniss, and much to my displeasure, President Coin of District 13. She's basically a dictator of the district, trying to force people to do what she wants. She's already tried to get Katniss to go back to District 12 for footage, and unfortunetly, Katniss agreed. So, today, I get to go back to District Twelve, where I would much rather not be, because they'll most likely force me onto the ground as Katniss's 'cousin' and force me to help her get through the remaning trash that's left of our district.

Shit.

* * *

I'm absolutely determined not to look out of the window. I will not, I refuse. Because my eyes will most likely stray to where her house was, and where her decaying body now-

No, stop it. Don't think about it. Focus on something else. Focus on the string coming off of your uniform. Anything but her. Katniss is being lowered onto the ground to see the destruction of our home, and I hear her gasp through the headset. She's still a little out there from the time spent in the second arena, still can't grasp the fact that Mellark was taken, and will most likely never come back. You can tell she loves him, even if she doesn't know it herself, she does. She loved him in the first arena, you could see it, when Cato, the boy from two had Mellark in a headlock. And how she couldn't kill him. That's why she pulled out those Goddamn berries that changed everything.

"Katniss? Should we come down?" I choke out, the words rolling off of my tounge without my brain having any knowledge of saying it until it's out there in the open. She pauses as if she wants me to come down but then decides against it. I breathe out a silent sigh of relief. Then, once again, my head thinks first and I'm looking out the window.

It's all gone. Most of it. Some fire still remains burning, ash covering the district more than it already did. The shaking remains of the Justice Building still stand, they could fall at any moment. The town square where I was whipped it completely unrecognizable. My back starts to itch just remembering the pain that each whip inflicted on me. And then the flash of blue that was Madge, completely terrified for me.

No. Stop thinking about it. It won't make her come back to life, she's gone. Then, my eyes travel unwillingly to where her house used to stand. All that's left is some crumbling remains and a ton off brick, wood, and ash. I feel my face pale as everything comes rushing back to me. Her playing the piano for me, her father scolding me for taking her away too much, and then the day when her mother got worse. I was there, most of the afternoon, trying to do anything to comfort her, trying to help her through the pain.

It's too much to take, so I turn away. Abernathy is looking at me, a question on his face. He's asking me why I look like I'm about to puke. I can't answer, so I merely shake me head. Abernathy was the only other person who knew about Madge and me. He somehow found out the night Madge brought the medicine. I don't remember much of that night, just unbelievable pain. When I was asked to describe it later, all I could say was to multiply the worst pain that you've ever felt by a thousand and you still wouldn't get there.

"She loved you, you know." He pulls off his headset so Katniss can't hear. We didn't tell her, it would just make her more confused. Also another person President Snow could use against her.

"Go to hell, Abernathy." I answer dryly, my tounge feels like sandpaper, I can't think.

"Just making sure you knew." He says, holding his hands up in defeat. I can only rake my hands through my hair again. It's become a habit. Just like she would do. She'd tug on her hair and play with it when she got nervous.

Katniss gets back on the hovercraft, and if possible, looks worse than she did before. Skin pale, eyes dull. She drops down in the seat next to me and takes a shaky breath as she wrings her hands together.

"Pretty bad, huh?" I ask quietly and she nods.

"I... I can only imagine what people felt like, as they saw their world being destroyed."

"It was bad." I tell her before going back to my stony silence. I'll bet she knows something's wrong with me, but isn't pushing it. She'll bug me later.

* * *

Once back in District 13, Coin calls us in. She tells us that Mellark was on television today, having a interview with Ceaser.

We all watch it, but it's not the Mellark we're used too. He's different, I can't figure out why, though. His eyes seem clouded, seems paler. Katniss basically breaks down at the sight of him. Finnick can't concentrate, he's too busy tying notes in an old rope. Apparently, he loves Annie Cresta, the insane Victor from District 4. She was taken by the Capitol, along with Mellark and Johanna.

Yeah, apparently, their big plan didn't go as planned. They could only save Katniss, Beetee, and Finnick from the arena. It was complete chaos meanwhile in the District.

_We all watch as Beetee, the victor from 3 tells the rest of them the plan, little did they know that they would be getting out. Haymitch told me and Thom what was going to happen, so we knew, just didn't want it to happen. I grip Madge's hand tighter and pull her closer. She watches in a horrified amazement, shocked at what their going to do. _

_Then, they're commencing their plan, working quickly and panicked, trying to get everything ready. All hell breaks loose. Johanna brings the metal cylinder down into Katniss's head and she crumbles, Madge burying her face in my chest. I don't force her to watch, knowing that either of us could be dead by the end of the night, I just didn't want it to happen. Johanna jumps onto Katniss, digging her tracker out of her arm, and I flinch from here. Madge forces herself to watch and visiblly cringe when blood squirts everywhere._

_Enobaria and Brutus are passing by and call her 'as good as dead'. I guess she is. Finnick Odair is running through the woods screaming for Katniss and Johanna as we see Mellark being jumped by Brutus and Beetee being knocked out. Mellark makes his first kill on purpose. He's week. His bad leg is slowing him down as he runs through the forest searching for Katniss. She's screaming for him, and finds Beetee out cold._

_This is where everything goes astray. Katniss and Johanna didn't manage to get the wire to the beach. Katniss has two remaining arrows. Quickly and surely, she wraps the wire around her arrow and shoots the arrow into the forcefield._

_Instant hell. There's a shower of explosions and then a blue screen. People are screaming and shouting at Peacekeepers._

_"Gale, we gotta go." Thom shouts at me over the choas as he talks to Bristol._

_"I know, give me a minute." I pull Madge to my chest and kiss her forehead._

_"Madge, listen to me. I have to go. Go to your house and get your parents. I'll meet you." The fire in her eyes is astonoshing._

_"It's happening isn't it?" A tear leaks from her eye and I nod before pressing my lips to her quickly, trying to tell her so much in that one kiss. I don't know how much is told in that one kiss, but I hope she knows everything I haven't told her._

_"I love you. Remember that. I love you, Madge." I tell her before holding her closer to me and she nods._

_"I love you." She murmurs and it's nearly impossible to leave her now. _

_"I'll see you soon, okay?" I tell her one last time as shots echo in the square. She's staying strong, just like I knew she would. Then, I take my last fleeting look at her taking in everything about her, from her blue eyes, to her golden hair, and pinks lips that taste like strawberries. She and Bristol round the corner that leads to her house and she locks eyes with me._

_"I love you." She mouths, tears now rolling down her face. As much as I want to go and hold her to me, I can't. I have to continue with my mission._

That was my mistake. I never should have let her go alone.

* * *

_**A/N: So the beginning is kinda boring, but after things pick up, it will get better. Notice how Gale can't manage to say her name much. That won't change, but other things will. Review!**_


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I guess I should say it. Sorry for the late update. Suffering from writers block, but got a bit of inspiration from track practice today. Thank God for rain. Sorry if it's so short. Also, there were a few makeout scenes in Mockingjay between Katniss and Gale, well those didn't happen.**

* * *

The days drag on slowly. I repeat the same cycle everyday: eat, train, command, eat, train, command, sleep. Over and Over again, in a never ending cycle. The dreams of Madge never cease, repeating over and over again. It's never ending, much like my schedule.

My family tries to get me back to normal, like I was before, but it's hard. Hard to deal with losing someone you love, or loved, if they're dead. If Katniss had died in the first HUnger Games, I wouldn't know what I would've done. Losing Katniss at the time would've been hard, never would I know that losing Madge Undersee would do this to me.

Through the days, I'm sent on several missions, one to District 8, where we almost get blown up. The hospital there gets blown up, everyone from the recent bombing gets killed too. It was horrible, watching it all go down.

Pretty soon, after another interview from Mellark, where we find out he has gotten worse, a rescue trip is arranged. I'd like to say it went well, but, unfortunetly, there were alot of injuries.

_Once inside the Capitol, I'm sent off with Jackson, a soldier from Thirteen to get Mellark, while other soilders go for Annie Cresta and Johanna Mason, another Victor in the Quell. Alarms are flashing everywhere when we burst into the room where Peeta is being held. He's wide awake and trashing around trying to get out of the bonds that hold him. When he sees me, his pupils dialate and he screaming louder. Jackson knocks him out with the gas and lugs him over his shoulder, while I run ahead, gun cocked and loaded, ready to shoot. _

_About halfway from the room Mellark was in, we come into trouble. We crash into the team that has Annie, she's clad in only a sheet and looks very frightened until Boggs knocks her out with the gas also. They have quite a few guards on their tail. I shoot at one of them and they fall and we all bolt, trying to get away. Every once and a while, I'll shoot backwards and I know what I've hit it's mark. A shout of pain, and a thud._

_That's for killing Madge, I think to myself. Everytime I hit a guard, it's for something else. For destroying District 12, for putting Katniss through the Games, for everything you've ever done to us._

_By the time we're out, I've ran out of thing to get back at them for. I've suffered a few hits and I'm exhausted, but I won't fall, not yet._

_Once on the hovercraft do we finally get to rest._

* * *

Mellark's been hijacked. Hates Katniss now. He tried to strangle her on first sight. What I wanted to do was to knock some sense into him, as they've gone through alot together, but I don't. I'm already in trouble for skipping a Command meeting. Though Katniss, the Mockingjay, has skipped most of them, I don't skip that many, but occasionally a few.

I've been assigned to make bombs that will blow up the Capitol's defense, like literally. There's one that will look like parachutes in the Games, and then blow up. Then, more bombs will go down, killing the survivors.

As much as I don't want to admit it, I've become one of them. One of the Capitol. Killing is a second nature to me now, animals or humans.

I once told Madge that if her and I were in the arena, she'd be the only one I wouldn't be able to kill. I'd be bending over backwards trying to keep her alive, even if it meant dying myself. She told me that she would be doing the same for me.

* * *

During one time that I'm working with Beetee on traps, two soilders come in and start working with the guns. I can hear their conversation as they clean their guns and get ready to practice.

"Yeah, more refugees came over the edge today. Said they were from Twelve." My heart lifts at the words. It may not be Madge, but at least someone else survived. I'm still not over her, I can't process the fact that she's dead. I just can't, it's nearly impossible to me, I loved her _that_ much.

"What state were they in?" The older man of the two asks, his voice gruff and loud.

"There were six of them. Two adults, a set of twins, and then two 18 year old girl's I think." At least children survived the horrible thing. I remember the fire raining down on everyone, people were screaming and running every which way, trying to find family. The bombs echoes still shatter my ear drums, screaming replays all the time, fire exsists behind my eyelids.

"Six? That's quite a bit not to be picked up by the Capitol." The older man says again, obviously amazed.

"Yeah, I know. It amazed me they were still alive. Anyways, the two adults were in okay shape. The man was in worse. Said a house collapsed on him, but he got out before it collapsed completely. His wife, the women, had a few burns but was okay, other than that. Their twins, we're okay. A few cuts and burns here and there. Broken rib on one of them."

"And the girls?"

The other man pauses before continuing. "They were in pretty bad shape. One of them, said a bomb dropped a few feet from them when they were running. She had bad burns and a lot of broken ribs."

"And the other?"

"It'll be a miracle if she survies till tomorrow morning." Beetee looks at me quickly, to make sure I'm not zoned out, but I'm completely lost to him. I've been sucked into the conversation, desperate to find out who these people are, I might know them.

"That bad?"

"Yeah. Broken leg, bad burns, there's something wrong inside. Poison, I think. She looked pretty green, all the color faded out of her skin and eyes, could barely walk." I can only imagine what's going on inside of the girl, anything could happen in the woods.

"Did they give any names?"

"Yeah. The family, the parents and the twins, gave the name of 'Frustlock'. One of the girls, the one in better condition, gave the name of 'Kaelin', I think that's how you say it, at least." I freeze. The name sounds so familar, it's crazy. I know that I knew someone with the last name of Kaelin. It's familar.

"And the other?"

"Undersee. The mayor's daughter."

And with that, the piece of metal I'm holding in my hands, falls to the ground with a clatter.

* * *

_A/N: Reviews are welcome. All will be explained in future chapters._


	4. Chapter 4

My mind is reeling instantly. She's alive, wait what? I can't think, I cannot process what's going on until I'm striding across the room to the elevator and punching a few buttons quickly.

She's alive, but she's dying. I can't think, I need to go to her, I don't care about Command at the moment, Madge is alive, the girl I love is alive. The elevator stops once and I stop pacing as Thom gets in the elevator. He looks quite defeated and angry. Time to cheer him up.

"They're alive." I choke out hoarsely and after a minute, he grins before pumping his fist in the air. We both stand restlessly in the elevator for God only knows how long, and finally, _finally_, the doors open and we both step out into the hospital ward. We see the family that crossed over with them, they're quite a mess and huddled together holding each other. Thom quickly looks up what rooms Bristel and Madge are in and we shoot off that way.

Thom stops in front of Bristel's door and takes a breath. I can say hello to her later. As soon as the door is open, I hear a shriek coming from inside. Must be Bristel.

I keep walking until I get to Madge's door. My family is outside. I don't know how they found out, but at the moment, I don't frankly care. My mother comes to embrace me and Posy clings to my legs.

"What are we doing, Gale?"

"We're going to see Madge, Posy." I grin down at her as a she laughs and goes to sit by Rory and Vick.

For the next few hours, I alternate from pacing, to sitting, to pacing again. Apparently, Madge is in surgery, she was poisioned by something, I don't know what though. All I can really process is: Madge is alive. For weeks now I had been mourning about her, thinking she was dead, when all this time, she's been alive, stuck in the woods, dying.

Finally, the doctor comes out, looking grim. "She's going to be okay. She's been through a lot these past few weeks. She was poisoned by something in the woods, we don't know what though. When she wakes up we'll have to talk to her about it."

"When she wakes up?"

"She had morphling, to keep the pain from her leg and ribs away. Just go on in there." He says quietly, opening the door and shoving all of us inside.

She's covered in cuts, hair matted, dirt is all over her, and she's the most beautiful person I've ever seen. Her face is deathly pale and I begin to think that it's too late and she's died. Immediately, I've crossed the room to her side and am sitting in the chair set next to the bed she's in. Memories flood my brain, everything we've been through together all coming back to me at once. I grasp her small fingers and kiss her hand softly. Posy crawls onto my lap and looks down at Madge. Rory and Vick sit on the edge of her bed, staring in awe at her.

I don't know how long we sit there, just waiting for her to wake up. She has all of these wires in her arm and everything seems normal. My mother tries to force me to go do something else, to go to Command, but I can't move. I need to be here when she wakes up, I have to be here. No questions asked.

She stirs in her sleep a few times and I think that she's going to wake up, but then doesn't, so my spirits deflate. Posy falls asleep in my arms so my mother takes her and the boys back. She leaves me here alone with Madge.

Pretty soon, I begin to doze.

_As soon as she's out of my sight, I bolt to the Everdeen's house, getting Prim and Mrs. Everdeen, they don't have time to grab anything from their house. I tell them to get to the meadow, they know where it is. My house next. My family is already ready in the house, pacing across the creaking floor._

_"Get to the meadow. I'll be there later."_

_"Gale, what's going on?" My mother asks. I can't lie to her._

_"It's happening. Ma, get everyone to the meadow, I have to get Madge. I'll see you guys soon." I kiss each of their heads and Posy clings to me._

_"Gale, where are you going?" She asks, looking up at me. God, this makes it hard to leave. I bend down and kiss her forehead._

_"I'll see you in a bit, Posy. I have to go now." I stand and Rory gets her off of me. I take one last fleeting look at my family, my house, the place I grew up, the place where my family grew up, the place where I've been for nineteen years. It's hard to leave it, knowing that it's probably not going to survive. Then, I exit the door._

_I meet up with Thom somewhere in the time that I'm telling people to get out of the District. Some people refuse, saying that they won't bomb us, but they will. I know they will, after the stunt they pulled in the arena, they will. Some people rush out the door and run, going to inform others or going to the meadow. One old couple refuses, they said that they have little time left anyways and would perfer to die in their home. Well, that's comforting. _

_I meet up with Thom somewhere in the trek to Madge's house, where we know Madge and Bristel will be. 100 feet from her house, a bomb is dropped. On her house. I can hear myself yelling and I can hear Thom yelling but I can't process what we're saying because all I can hear is screaming. Her screaming. Mixed with Bristels, her fathers and her mothers. The loudest is Madge's; it's the only thing I can hear. I can't hear the bombs being dropped on the rest of the district, I can't hear other people screaming. I can only hear her._

_"Gale we have to go." Thom regains himself first. I'm in shock._

_"No. They must be alive, in there, they have to be!" I shout, preparing to run into the house and get them out of there. Thom grabs my arm and tries to pull me back. "Madge!" I shout out, still trying to get to her. I have to get to her._

I wake with a start, my heart pounding and I'm sweating. That's the usual nightmare I have. The one where Madge's house gets bombed, and I could hear her screaming. That must be where she got all of the burns.

My eyes scan over her face, breathing in everything about her. She has a few spare cuts and burns on her face but other than that, she looks reletively the same. Her hair is matted but still glowing when it catches the dim light. I wish I could see her eyes, the bright blue that would always light up my day even if I was in the worst mood possible.

I brush a few stray strands of hair off of her face, my fingers brushing over her skin. She stirs a bit and shifts until her eyelids flutter open, _finally_.

I stare in shock with eyes wide as she slowly opens her eyes all the way and goes to sit up but hisses in pain and clutches her side where her ribs are broken. She's the only thing I can see, the blue of her eyes the only color that stands out to me. It's the only color that's stood out to me, here in 13, everything is dull. Seeing her eyes is like the sun is rising again after years of no light.

Her eyes scan the room and finally, she speaks, her voice like music despite it being scratchy. "Am... Am I dead?" Her eyes finally scan over to me and it causes me to take a sharp intake of breath when her eyes pop out of her head. "G-Gale..." I don't hesitate to pull her petite form into my arms, moving onto the bed and holding her, careful not to cause any pain to her. I don't want to put her through more pain. Her hand curls on my chest and we sit there for a little, me holding her. Just holding her.

Oh, how I've longed to hold her. I realize that she's crying. I pull away and rest my forehead on hers. "Shh, don't cry. Please. I just found you again." I gently wipe her tears from her face and they leave streaks of dirt.

She shifts with much pain in her eyes, it's completely evident to me. "No, stop. Don't move. I don't want you to be hurt anymore." I whisper to her and she speaks.

"I love you. I love you, Gale." She speaks frantically, trying to get the words out quickly, like she doesn't think she's going to be able too. "I love you."

I turn her, carefully, so I don't hurt her anymore than she already is and press my lips onto hers for our first kiss in months. She still tastes like strawberries, I think silently to myself. I don't push her, just kiss her gently and slowly, hopefully telling her everything I hadn't been able to tell her. She breaks the kiss first by wincing. She tries to hide it, but unsuccessfully.

I force her to lay back down on her hospital bed and take her hand, kissing it once more. "I thought you were dead, Madge." I finally force out and her fingers twine with mine.

"I thought I was too." She admits, tears then pooling in her eyes. I reach out and cup her face, gently wiping the tears again with my thumb. "My dad's dead." She chokes out and I look down at our hands.

"I know. I couldn't get him out. I couldn't even get you out, Madge." I drop my head into my hands and run them through my hair. "I couldn't even get the one person I love the most out."

"It's not your fault, Gale."

Slowly, shifting her without hurting her side or her leg or whatever else is wrong with her, I press my lips to hers for the first time in months. She still tastes like strawberries, I think to myself. I don't push her too fast, just slowly kiss her, telling her everything I haven't been able to tell her. We don't break away until she winces. She tries to hide it, but I see it.

I force her to lay back down before taking her hand again and kissing it. I don't say anything for a minute as she watches me. "All this time... I thought you were dead Madge. When in reality... You're alive. You're alive." The words sound foreign in my mouth. But she's only barely alive. She's nearly dead. "What poisoned you, Madge?" I gently ask her and she looks up, blinking away more tears.

"I... I-it was a snake... A few days before we got here... It got me and-"

"Where?" I whisper to her and she raises a weak and trembling arm from where her ribs are broken and pats her right shoulder. It really is a miracle that she's alive. I can't believe it, I never thought that she would still be alive. I mean, I had hoped but when her house exploded... I thought it was over. I really did.

I stay with Madge about twenty more minutes, relishing in the fact that she's actually alive. She's really weak and can't actaully move very far. Occasinally while I talk, Ill squeeze her hand, making sure she's still with me.

Eventually, she falls asleep and only then do I realize how long I've stayed with her. It's been all day. Coin's gonna kill me.

Back at my home, my mother and Rory are still up. When the door snaps shut, they jump up from the couch and come to me, firing questions.

"She's fine. Just resting. She'll be okay."

And even as I say it, I hope it's true.

* * *

A/N: Sorry if this took forever. Wanted to get it right. Hope I did it justice. Updates will be only once a few becasue my grades are dropping and parents aren't very happy. I'm not abandoning, I just have to get my grades up! Review!


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning, I wake up bright and early to Katniss pounding on our front door. Quickly, I fall out of bed and rush to the door, trying to get her to shut up before she wakes up the entire district.

"What?" I hiss once the door is open and she glares before pulling me back in the hall, eyes blaring.

"You missed like four meetings yesterday! Coin is pissed!" I'm a bit shocked that she noticed. Lately, she's been worried about Mellark nearly strangling her. I'm not even going to try to go talk to him. That'd be a pleasent visit.

"I was busy, okay? It was a long day and I needed a break." I respond quickly, half lying through my teeth. I was busy, with Madge. Just the thought of her makes me want to go make sure she's still here and not an illsion, to make sure she's still breathing. "And why is Coin so mad? It was just a few meetings."

"A few meetings? A few meetings?! They were about the war and stuff like that!"

"Okay, okay, I'll go today. Now can you please let me sleep for at least one more hour? Sleeping is not my forte lately." I tell her and it's true. Last night I was awoken maybe four times thinking that Madge was dead or something. Then I realized that she was okay and alive. Then there was that one dream that kept me up for an hour, just thinking about it.

_The mines collapsed. I was in them when they did. Tons of rock on top of me, suffocating me, causing me to breathe in more coal dust than I already have. A rock hit my ankle, causing it to twist slightly. I'm deeper in the mine than normal 19 year olds. _

_I can hear the moaning of pain from the men around me and Thom keeps trying to get them to yell for help to get out. They know we're here, surely they do. There's several of us stuck under the rock. I can barely hear the sirens from down here, we're so far under._

_There's only one thought that keeps me going, the only thing that allows me to want to get back out: Madge._

_I had neglected her for months and months because she gave me morphling. She was trying to keep me alive, and if I die now when she risked her life to come to give me medicine, I'm gonna practically kill myself._

_I know now that I love her. I love Madge Undersee. I never thought I would say that. Ever. I thought it was going to be Katniss, I really did. I know that it's not now. She's gone, going back to the arena. Madge is... Madge is more than I could have ever asked for, and all this time I've been pushing her away when I should have been bringing her closer._

_We sit there for hours, inhaling the smoke and dust and unhealthy fumes until someone finally finds us. We're the last group found. There's a pile of bodies by the elevator shaft and I can't help but think that that could've been me. Or Thom. Or anyone._

_I'm in the last elevator with Thom and one more man. His head is slightly bleeding. Thom just looks ready to get out of the stupid mines before they collapse again. There's even more coal dust in the shaft and we cough and hack up our lungs the entire times._

_Finally, when the shafts open and semi fresh air and sunlight hit us, I feel like I can breathe again, but I still cough and I cough as Posy jumps at me and clings to me. Then comes Rory and Vick. Then my mother. They all just hold me for a moment before my mother looks at me and then looks away to where a retreating figure with golden hair is walking away, wringing her hands._

_"Go talk to her." She tells me sternly. "She's been waiting here for hours, scared out of her wits. She needs you. And by the looks of it, you need her too." I nod quickly before slowly lumbering after her. I catch her as she turns from the mines._

_"Madge," I choke out turning her by her shoulder, "Madge." I pull her into my arms, wrapping her petite frame in my arms, breathing in her scent, the way she feels, everything. "I love you." I finally choke out to her and she looks at me, with teary eyes. She has coal dust on her face and she looks so damn adorable that slowly, I kiss her, before she can respond._

_She doesn't know what to respond with, I know she doesn't. I had just ignored her for months and all of the sudden I'm kissing her? Odd, I can imagine. Finally, she does something other than stand there and she finally links her arms around my neck, tugging me downward, closer to her. I break the kiss before I can get to carried away; she needs to know I love her._

_"I love you, Madge. Yes, I love you." I tell her again when she shakes her head. "Yes, you. Only you, Madge. All I could think about down there was you, and had I not made it I never would've been able to tell you I'm sorry and-"_

_"Gale," she cups my face, "I love you, too."_

"Gale?" Katniss snaps her fingers in front of my face looks irritated as I snap back to reality. "What is wrong with you? Ever since we're gotten here, you've been acting weird, not talking and stuff. And now you seem even weirder."

"I'm fine, Catnip. Just haven't slept very well." Not a lie. I haven't really since I thought Madge died. And now I was up all night worrying about her. "Can I go back to bed now?"

She huffs, "Fine. Make sure you're at today's meeting. Coin will skin you if you aren't." She turns on her heel and stalks away from me and I sigh before walking back into our 'house.'

* * *

Madge's heart stopped twice last night. The poison spread a little. When I went to see her before the meeting, the doctor wouldn't let me in, saying that she needed recovery time from heart failure.

I'm still shaking when I get to Command. Madge's heart stopped. _Twice_. She nearly died._ Again_. When I enter the room, Coin glares at me, Finnick raises an eyebrow and Haymitch smirks. I give him a look and he smirks more. God, I wish he wouldn't have found out about us. Hell, I really wish he hadn't.

"Mr. Hawthorne, how nice of you to finally join us." She drones, still glaring. "We missed you when you didn't come for four meetings.

Hell, she knows. She knows about Madge and how we're together. God, I know she knows. I can tell when she stares at me.

"Sorry." I finally force out and her silver eyes narrow.

She ignores my comment. "We're here right now to discuss about Mr. Mellark." Katniss tenses next to me. Last I had heard, he was not getting any better at all. Still thinks Katniss is a mutt. But he did start on Finnick and Annie's wedding cake. I haven't seen it, but I know Mellark is a good baker. Yeah, it kills me to say that.

The meeting goes on, with Coin occasionally shooting glares at me and me pretending I don't notice. All I want to do is get out of here to see if Madge is okay.

There is one thing that catches my attention. When Coin says that she knows some people who can maybe help Mellark.

She slides the folders over to Katniss who opens the first one up. Delly Cartwright. She can help. Katniss nods numbly before closing the folder and opening the next one. I'll say I'm a bit shocked when I see the name 'Madge Undersee' staring back at me.

I don't want her in there with Mellark. He nearly strangled Katniss, what if he tries the same thing with Madge?

Katniss's voice breaks me out of my thoughts. "Madge? I thought she was dead."

_You and me both,_ I think to myself. "Where is she?" Katniss asks, staring down at Madge's folder. I really hope it doesn't say anything.

"In the hospital. She came over the border about 24 hours ago. Currently healing up." Coin responds, staring at me.

"When can I see her?"

"You can go right after the meeting. Go with Mr. Hawthorne."

Shit.

* * *

The meeting goes by fast after, much faster than I would like. I'm restless. Haymitch can see me fidgeting. He smirks and my eyes narrow as the meeting ends.

Katniss drags me by the wrist down to the hospital. I already know where her room is, so I just follow Katniss down to where she is. It seems that Katniss gets more leway because she's allowed in without a second glance.

Madge is tired. I know that when I follow Katniss wearily into the room. There are bags under her eyes and she looks paler than she was when I left her last night. She looks like she's in serious pain. Everytime she breathes, a shock of pain courses up her body. I can tell by the way that she winces every few seconds.

"Madge!" Katniss calls out and she alerts her eyes to Katniss, and then me quickly before her eyes go back to Katniss as she forces a smile.

"Hi." She croaks out and then coughs quickly into her sleeve. I wish I could take all of the pain from her. I would gladly take it from her any day so she would be fine, even if it meant I had poison in me.

"What happened to you? We thought you were dead!" Katniss is actually getting teary eyed. Wow. Never thought I'd say that.

"A lot of people did." She chokes out and then coughs again. I know I was one of those people. I still can't believe that she's here. She's dying, though. That's the thing. If she actually dies, when I knew she was alive and I held her, I honestly don't know what I'd do. Possibly die.

I hadn't realized that Katniss had been nudging me for the past minute or so.

"What?" I spout out and she glares while Madge bites her lip to prevent from laughing at me.

"I said, aren't you going to say hello?" She crosses her arms and taps her foot on the ground, to imply that she's annoyed.

I stare at Katniss for a minute and then turn to Madge. "Hi." I tell her crosses my arms and locking my jaw. I wink at her slightly so she knows I'm teasing. She catches it, thank God.

"Thanks for the concern." She says cooly, trying to sit up but wincing and finding out that she cannot manage that.

"Madge, they want you to go see Peeta." Katniss says, getting to the point. Way to crack the whip, Katniss, way to crack the whip.

"Peeta? What's wrong with him?" She asks, looking concerned.

Katniss chokes on her words. "He's been hijacked."

"Hijacked?"

"He thinks Katniss is a mutt. Tried to starangle her." I finish for Katniss, who is unable to form words at the moment.

"Why?" Madge's eyes bulge out of her head and she winces again.

"He was taken by the Capitol." Katniss chokes again. I hate how Madge has to hear about this now. She just got here, she doesn't want to hear it. "After the arena blew up."

I can still see the fire raining down on everyone and the destruction. Madge's old house comes into view and I have to shake my head to get the image out of my head.

"Oh. I'm sorry." Madge whispers and Katniss takes a breath.

"I have to go. I'm not feeling well." And then she scurries out of the room, forgetting I'm here.

"Well that was amusing." Madge forces out and I look at her. She's really weak, I can tell. I cross the room and sit in the chair I sat in last night.

"Your heart stopped twice. Twice, Madge." I finally speak and she looks away from me, at the ceiling, blinking away tears.

"I know. I _know_, Gale." She cries out and then she's in my arms again. I'm careful not to hurt her. She's in enough pain as it is. "I don't want to die, Gale."

"I don't want you too either. I just found you again, I cannot lose you again. It nealy killed me the first time. I won't let you die, okay? I'll do everything in my power to prevent it, okay?" I mumur into her hair and I feel her nod against my chest. "I'm sorry you had to hear about Peeta."

She shrugs, with great pain. "Do they want me to see him?"

"Yeah. I don't want you in there with him, though. I don't want him to freak out and try to strangle you too." I tighten my arms around her and she shifts into my lap, her hands slipping around to my back. I immediately tense; I still wake up from shocks of pain in my back. Madge is the only one who I actually allow to touch the scars, they're so horrible.

"I honestly don't think you'd let him strangle me." She whispers into my chest and I have to smile. If he even lays a finger on her, he's gonna wish the Capitol would have kept him.

* * *

_A/N: Sorry if this took forever, school been slamming me and track has been draining me mentally. Hope y'all like it! I would really appreaciate it if you reviewed today(: Also, sorry if the update isn't up to par, losing inspiration._


	6. Chapter 6

Katniss is getting on my nerves. She's cutting my time with Madge short by being there whenever I try to go see her. It's driving me crazy. The only time I can see Madge now is when Katniss is either in the hospital or at the crack of dawn. I hate having to wake her up, but I don't think she minds.

I'm attempting to go to see her today, and I'm telling someone to distract Katniss for a while. I decide on Thom. Madge and Thom became really good friends, actually, and I figured that he could annoy Katniss the most. Luckily, he manages that in about five minutes with anyone.

I make my way down to her hospital room. She's gotten considerably better in the last few weeks, the poison draining from her system. She has more pink to her cheeks, more sparkle to her eyes. I'm glad too, because honestly, I don't think I can handle another scare with her.

When I enter her room, she's thankfully awake and smiles at me. "Where have you been?" She smirks and I move to the chair next to the bed.

"Busy. Katniss keeps getting in the way." I grumble and press a kiss to her head. Currently, I'm skipping Reflection time, but my family doesn't mind. I don't think, at least.

She laughs and motions for me to climb on the bed with her and I do, wrapping my arms around her shoulders. She caves and snuggles closer to me. "Why don't we just tell her, Gale?"

I sigh. "She'll probably slap me for keeping it from her for so long."

"I guess I'll be slapped too, then."

"Nah. She likes you. Lately she hasn't been too happy with me." She grins and sighs.

"I've missed laying with you." She says and I chuckle.

"You and me both." I pause. "When you're released from the hospital you should come over. My family wants to see you."

"I'll come." She quietly says and then looks at me. "Where will I live? My family's dead and I'm underage."

"They have you down as eighteen in your folder, and that's the legal age here."

"Oh, so you've been through my folder too?" She teases and I poke her side and she giggles.

"Not exactly. Just a little bit. Anyways, since you're down as eighteen you should have your own compartment."

"I don't wanna live alone."

I stare at her. "Do you honestly think I'm going to let you live alone? No. You can have the own compartment but that doesn't mean you actually have to live in it."

She grins at me and her tongue darts out to wet her lips. "You know I hate it when you do that Madge." I grin and she does that again. "God, I hate you." I murmur and press my lips to her and kiss her. Really kiss her, for the first time in weeks. Now she tastes like sugar. I run my tongue over her bottom lip and grin from the noise she emits. Her fingers are playing with her hair on the base of my neck and I tangle mine in her hair.

"I love you." She murmurs against my lips and I grin, pulling her closer to me as she tugs my head downward to her. I press gentle kisses along her jaw and neck and she lets out another noise and I grin again.

My arms wrap around her back and she shivers. Goosebumps flesh on her arms. This is what we do to each other. I give her goosebumps and she gives me the spine tingling shocks. I've missed kissing her. A lot.

"I love you, Madge. I really do." I mutter and she grins, slipping her tongue into my mouth and we explore each other again. Her hands run over my back and I tense slightly. I don't like people touching my back. Only her. She's the only one who can.

We're interrupted from our moment when the door crashes open and I see Katniss standing in the door, with a guilty looking Thom standing behind her.

Katniss' eyes flick between Madge and I for a moment before she motions me outside. I untangle myself from Madge and follow her out. As soon as the door is closed, Katniss whacks my upside the head.

"What's wrong with you?!" She shouts out and I groan, running my hands through my hair.

"It's a long story."

"I think I'm just going to go in there." Thom says loudly and goes into Madge's room.

"I would like to here it, you inconsiderate little bastard!" Her palm makes contact with my cheek.

"God, Katniss, calm down, will you?"

"No, I won't calm down! Not when I find you kissing one of my best friends!"

"Will you let me explain, Katniss?" She crosses her arms over her chest and glares at me. "During your first Games, we got together and I realized that I liked her a lot."

"Then where was she when I came home, hm?"

"I pushed her to the side, pretended like she didn't exist."

"Then why the hell did you kiss me?"

"I don't know, Katniss. When I did, it felt wrong. It wasn't her."

"And the two of thought it would be best to not tell me this?" I go to respond when she talks again. "Do you love her?"

Slowly, I nod. Katniss glares some more and then turns on her heel and walks away. She doesn't trust me. Nor Madge, most likely. I rub my face and my hand lingers over where she slapped me.

Yes, that went perfectly.

I open Madge's door to find her laughing about something Thom most likely said. Her eyes fly to my face, where Katniss slapped me.

"Slapped you, didn't she?"

"Yeah. She seemed pretty pissed."

"No, she seemed pretty pissed when I kept pressing different buttons in the elevator and wouldn't let her off of Level 1." Thom chortles and I can't help but laugh and the thought of Katniss' face. "Well I'm gonna go now. Have to help Bristol move out of the hospital."

"How's she doing?" Madge asks, linking her hand with mine. "They haven't let me out of this stupid room since I got here."

"Trust me, there isn't much to see." I grumble and she gives me a pointed look as if to say shut up.

"All healed up." Thom says proudly and then leaves, bidding his good-byes to us.

"When are _you_ getting out of here?" I ask her and she smiles.

"A few days."

"Finally."

"Yeah. I'm excited to get out. It's boring here." She sighs and releases my hand. "Do you think she's really upset?"

"I don't know. I mean, we hid this from her for forever. She's probably never going to trust either of us again." I pull back my sleeve and look at my schedule on my forearm.

"Shit, I gotta go." I have Command in two minutes and I can't afford not being there. "I'll see you later." I tell her and kiss her forehead.

"Love you!" She calls as I walk out of the room and I can't help but smile.

* * *

Back home, after Command, which was very pleasant, Rory attacks me for news of Madge.

"She's getting out of the hospital in a few days."

"Oh, thank God." My mother sighs, lifting a sleeping Posy off of the ground and bringing her to her room.

"Where's she gonna go, Gale?" Vick asks and I shrug. I'll have to talk to my mom about Madge staying here before I make any promises. I hope she'll be fine with it, I mean, she stayed at our old house a lot and my mom was never worried about it. Or, at least she never told me if she was. Rory claims that she loved when Madge stayed over, even though she acted annoyed.

My mom comes back out, herding Rory and Vick off to bed before coming back.

"Ma?"

"Hm?"

"Could Madge stay with us after she gets out of the hospital?" My mom sighs and sits down on the couch.

"Gale, I don't know."

"Ma, I don't want her alone."

She fiddles with a string on her hem of her shirt. "She can as long as nothing happens."

"Ma, you know that we wouldn't-"

"I know you wouldn't. Just making sure you knew." I sigh in relief and start to walk toward my room.

"Thanks, Ma."

And for once, I actually sleep soundlessly.

* * *

_A/N: OMG, I'm so sorry. It took me forever. I was completely out of inspiration for this story and had no clue what to do, but I thought of something. I hope people are still reading and aren't so angry with me for taking forever. Pop on by and leave a review!_


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: Lots of dialogue in this chapter.**

* * *

A couple days later, Katniss still hasn't spoken me. But frankly, I don't care. Madge is getting out today. She's going to be on crutches for a while because of her leg and I know she's going to hate them because she's Madge.

When I go to get her from the hospital, the people aren't letting her actually get up until I'm here, so she doesn't drain her energy or what not. When I do get there, she looks greatly annoyed. She's changed out of the hospital gown into mandatory gray clothes and is sitting on the edge of the bed, crutches next to her. She's staring at them, like she doesn't know what to do with them. I knock on the door lightly and she looks up, her eyes lighting up.

"Finally." She mumbles, pulling the crutches under her. When she first stands up she's a little wobbly on her feet from weeks of not walking on them.

"Careful there." I tell her gently and she shoves me.

"I can do it."

I grin. That's my girl. When she finally stands on her feet and manages to walk a little, I grin again.

"I told you I could."

"I didn't doubt it, Madge." I smirk at her and walk next to her. Really, all I want to do is hold her right now, but that's a problem because of the stupid crutches. Once in the elevator, she leans against the wall. I tap the bottom of the crutch with my foot.

"Hate them, don't you?"

"You know me so well." She smiles and I press a kiss to her temple.

"I love you." I murmur against her temple and she rears her head up before pressing her lips to mine quickly. I'm never going to get tired of that. I grin as her hand runs over the scruff on my chin.

"Love you too." She murmurs back and the elevator door dings open, to reveal a startled looking Katniss. Hooray. Katniss stares at me for a second, before going into the other open elevator. I hold the elevator door for Madge as she walks out.

"She's mad, isn't she?"

"Yeah. Pissed."

She sighs, while the crutches pound out a rhythm on the ground. "We did keep it from her for a long time, Gale. Sometimes I wonder if we should have told her."

"I wonder the same thing, Madge." I lead her too where I live and open the door. "Brace yourself." I murmur and she laughs.

As soon as we enter the room, my family jumps up immediately. Yeah, I've never gotten that warm of a welcome. Rory and Vick both give her tight hugs and my mom embraces her. Posy tries to climb up into Madge's arms but she can't hold her on crutches.

"I'm glad to see you alive, Madge." My mom says as Madge manuevers herself into the living room with everyone following.

"It's good to be alive." She laughs as Posy finally gets her proper hug from Madge. Everyone sits around her in the living room and I stand behind her, wrapping my arms around her shoulder. "It's just good to be out of that hospital."

"I'm glad you're out of there, too." I murmur and I know she's smiles. My mom gives me a look and I grin at her. I'm completely and utterly happy right now. My family's safe, I'm safe, my girlfriend's safe, and if she's safe, I'm fine.

My family amuses Madge for a while, while the entire time I'm grinning like an idiot. When dinner rolls around, I tell everyone to go ahead because Madge is slow with her crutches and she whacks me with one.

"You deserved that one, Gale." She groans, but she's smiling anyways. I press another kiss to her lips and feel her smile against my lips. "I love you anyways." This only makes me smile more.

My smile fades a little when we get to the cafeteria, when I realize that we have to eat near Katniss.

"I thought the food got better once you were out of the hospital." Madge mutters and I chuckle.

"No, not really. It's pretty nasty all around." She groans sarcastically and I set her tray down. Katniss avoids our eyes and doesn't say much. She'll mumble under her breath to Prim, but otherwise, that's it. Prim flashes a smile at Madge; Madge taught her a few basic piano skills back in 12.

Mrs. Everdeen and my mom try to start conversation, but it's just awkward. There isn't much conversation besides Prim and Rory (that sly dog!) talking a little. When dinner is over, I ask Vick to bring Madge back to our compartment because I have Command after dinner for forty-five minutes. On the way there, Katniss falls in step besides me.

"I cannot believe you." She hisses under her breath and I sigh.

"Can't believe what, Katniss?" I groan and she lets out a huff.

"Can't believe that you kept something like that from me."

"We didn't tell you because you had too much on your mind!"

"Well, I wouldn't liked to know sooner rather than later!" She barks and I roll my eyes. Our conversation is stopped short when we have to go in. Haymitch sends Katniss a look and she glares.

Coin gets straight to business. "So, are our participants ready to go see Peeta?" Oh. Yeah. Madge has to go see Peeta.

"I could care less if they're ready or not." She spits out and my fists clench. I would prefer if Madge was ready to go in there, not only her, but the other girl too, Delly.

"Then should they go in there tomorrow?"

"I don't care." Well I do.

"Then it's settled. They'll go in tomorrow." Katniss glances at me, as if waiting fo me to challenge it. If I do, Coin will know my weak spot is Madge. No, I can't let that happen. "Also, in a week we will we leaving for District 2." What? I don't want to leave, not because I love District 13 so much, but because I just got Madge back today, I need more than a week.

"Fine." Katniss says stiffly. Everyone agrees, much to my displeasure. The meeting ends quickly after that. Hoping to get out of talking to people, I hurry out of there. Though, Haymitch catches up to me before I can.

"So I take it you didn't tell her about your little relationship?"

"Nope."

"Figures. She was in a pretty bad mood."

"Yeah. She slapped me when I first told her." He gives me the slow clap. "Shove off, Abernathy." I grumble and hear him cackling down the hallway. God, he's going to get on my nerves.

The ride back down to my home is slow. I just want to get back down to my family and Madge. Finally, the elevator comes to a stop and I hurry out, going to our compartment.

I hear Madge's tinkling laugh and immediately, my mood is lifted. When I get into the living room I see Madge and Rory both rolling over laughing and I grin before going into the kitchen to wash off my hands.

"You're smiling more." My mom points out when I walk in. I shrug and she goes out to the living room, herding Posy to bed. She protests, but she's so tired she falls asleep when my mom walks her too her room. Rory and Vick follow thirty minutes later. I start to walk to my room, expecting Madge to follow, but she kind of stands there with her crutches staring at me.

I motion for her to follow and her cheeks burst pink, but she follows me anyways. Once in my room, she drops the crutches on the floor and collapses backward on the bed.

"God I hate those things." I laugh and pull her into my arms, holding her close to me. She sighs into my embrace and I grin into her hair. I fall backwards on the bed and she laughs when she falls on top of my chest.

"I've missed this so much." I tell her, tangling my hand in her hair.

"So have I." She murmurs and I kiss her. "And I've missed that." I grin and kiss her again, cupping her cheeks. Her hand teases the hair on my neck as my lips run over hers. Mine travel downward onto her neck and I begin to suck gently, getting a soft moan out of her. I flip her around so I'm above her and she props herself up on one elbow. Her hands pull off my shirt and she pulls me down closer to her. When my hands tease at her shirt, and I start to ride it up, she stops me.

"Gale," she laughs into my mouth, "Gale."

"Hm?" I murmur, working on her jaw.

"Gale, your mother is in the next room." She laughs and that stops me short.

"Oh. Right." She laughs again and I chuck my shirt at her playfully. She throws it back at me and I chuckle. While she stayed with us back in 12, when it still existed, she'd usually sleep in one of my shirts so I throw one from home back at her and she stares at it for a moment.

"Was this from home?"

"Yeah, it was." I turn around and let her change quickly. When I turn back around, she's sitting on the bed, one of her legs tucked under her, and the other one, the slightly hurt one, hangs off of the bed. She's staring at her hands in her lap.

"What's wrong?" I ask, moving towards her and pulling her back into my arms, laying down on the bed.

"It's just.."

"It's just what, Madge?"

"I don't know what to think of this place."

"I don't think anyone does." I mean, I like it because I can rant about the Capitol and no one tries to shoot me, but I hate it because of Coin, and basically everything else.

"But-"

"Madge, can we not talk about this now? I haven't been able to actually hold you for a really long time and I want to hold you. We can talk tomorrow." She gives me a small smile and curls up into me.

I'm just about to cave under sleep, when Madge asks me something.

"Gale?"

"Hm?"

"What are you going to do after the war?" I haven't really thought of that yet. I'm not going back to 12, I know that. Too hard when everything's gone.

"I dunno. Maybe a different district. I really don't know at all."

"I don't know either. I don't have a home to go back too, or any family."

Pause. "You could come with me, wherever I end up going." I say softly, and her head turns from it's spot on my chest to look at me.

"Do you really mean that?" She asks, her amazing blue eyes staring intently, when I realize that I do mean it. I don't want to have to leave her, not now, or ever, really. I want her to come with me.

"Yeah. I mean it." I sincerely mean and she smiles softly at me. "I do want you to come with me, Madge."

"I believe you, Gale." She murmurs, moving closer to me and my hands find her back, tracing circles on it.

"Madge?"

"Yeah?"

"How do you feel about having kids?"

She snorts, "I'm seventeen, Gale. And there's a war going on. I don't want to bring a kid into the world."

"I know that, Madge, I mean later. After the war."

"But what if we lose and the Hunger Games keep going? The Capitol will surely send the rebellion leaders' kids into them."

"Well you're not a rebellion leader, Madge."

"But you are." She says, her head falling back onto my chest. I start to play with her hair while I think of a response. Does that mean that she wants to have kids with me? Because I do. I want to marry her. I'm not even going to deny it.

"Think of it this way. We will win the war, and then life can be easier and there won't be any kids going to the Hunger Games."

"Yeah, I don't think that life will be easier. Life's always been hard."

"Well, yeah, but it could be easier without the threat of the reaping hanging over everyone's head." I point out, and then keep going. "You have no idea how scared I was when that Quarter Quell announcement was announced. I was terrified that you were going to get stuck in it somehow." I confess to her. Even though we weren't dating at the time, that doesn't mean I didn't have feelings for her.

She feigns a shocked impression. "Gale Hawthorne, scared? What's this?"

"Oh shove off." I grumble and she shoots me a smile. "I was terrified, now don't go telling anyone that, Madge." I poke her side slightly and she grins.

"I was scared too. Thought you were gonna get stuck in it."

"I would've survived." I force out and she chuckles, running her hand along the stubble on my chin again.

"Sometimes I really wonder if you would've."

"And why do you wonder that?"

"Because you're so gentle with your family and me."

I laugh softly. "That's because I love you guys, a lot. A lot more than I should."

* * *

_A/N: Sorry if this is out of the sorts. I've had the scene between Gale and Madge planned out for a little while now, so I hope y'all like it! Anyways, Katniss is really upset because, well, she's Katniss. Thoughts? Reviews? c:_


	8. Chapter 8

The next morning, I wake up and immediately grin because Madge is curled up next to me. God, I've missed this.

"Hey sleepyhead." I murmur, twirling her hair around my finger.

"No." She murmurs, trying to bury her face from the world.

"We have to get up, Madge." I laugh, and she shakes her hand, and moves closer to me.

"No."

"Yes, Madge. I know you don't want to, but they're on a schedule in 13." She groans and sits up, rubbing her eyes. She looks so damn adorable when she's just woken up. Her hair's all ruffled and her clothes are wrinkled, but she's adorable. Her stomach rumbles. "Breakfast is in a little bit, if you're hungry." She nods, still half asleep, and goes to stand up, but she forgets she has crutches, and nearly goes toppling down because of her leg.

"Easy there," I mutter, grabbing her crutches and handing them to her. She takes them, rubbing her eyes again. Meanwhile, I rummage around for some clean clothes in my room. When I turn around, she's already changed.

"How the hell do you change so quickly?" She shrugs, laying back down now that she's dressed and burying her face in the sheets. If you haven't noticed, Madge is not a morning person. I pull on a clean shirt and then crawl over to where she is on the bed and lift her head up. "Madge, we have to go." She sits up groggily and her head falls to my shoulder.

"Okay," she murmurs groggily, opening her eyes before shutting them again due to the harsh light, "But can I go to bed earlier tonight? Please?"

"Of course you can. You can go to bed right after dinner, if you want." She nods slowly and then opens her eyes again.

"Is there a dimmer?"

I laugh a little. "I wish. C'mon, breakfast time." I stand and help her stand. She's so tired she doesn't even insist that she can do it herself. I open the door and she goes out first, with me following. My family just left, I can tell. I shove my forearm under the scanner thing and it plants my schedule on it. I have to punch in a different code for it to work on Madge's schedule because she doesn't actually live with us. I'm going to try to pull some strings so it registers her here. I glance at her schedule to find she returns to the hospital while I'm in Command after lunch, so at least she'll be busy.

On the way to breakfast, she finally starts to wake up. "I'm going to start training, when my leg heals."

This stops me short. "Oh. What?"

"I'm going to start training when my leg gets better."

Frankly, I don't really want her to train. Training means she has to go to the Capitol, which means fighting, which means possible death. I know that I have a bigger chance of dying, because I'll be with Katniss, but if Madge is there, she's the only thing I'm going to be worrying about.

"That's.. That's great. That's really great, Madge." I force out and she goes quiet.

"You don't want me to train, do you." It's not a question, it's a statement. She knows I don't want her too.

"I mean, I'm all for bringing the Capitol down and getting freedom, but I'll be worried about you the entire time." I tell her as I punch a button in the elevator.

"I'll be fine, Gale. I can handle myself, you know."

"I know you can, and I don't doubt it Madge. That's not going to stop me from worrying about you."

"You don't have to be worried, Gale." She notes, leading me out of the elevator.

"But I will be." I tell her, and then continue. "Even if you were here, I would worry."

She gives me a small smile and we continue to the cafeteria, but before we can get there, _Katniss_ stops us. She pulls the two of us aside and stares at us for a moment, before she talks.

"Look. I'm not exactly happy right now because I would've rather have known about this a while ago instead of a few days ago."

"I told you, Katniss. We didn't want to tell you because you had so much on your plate." I grumble and Madge elbows my side and I grumble at her.

"I appreciate that, but it still doesn't soften the blow when I find out two of my best friends have been seeing each other behind my back."

Katniss has been through a lot. Two Hunger Games, losing Mellark, and the upcoming war. Surely, she could handle this.

"What I'm trying to say is that..." She's never been good with words. "I'm okay with it. It doesn't mean I trust either of you as much as I did before, but I'm okay with.. whatever you two have."

Madge and I are both quiet for a moment. Slowly, I nod and Madge tries to give Katniss a small smile. But, she leaves.

"Was that weird for you, or was it just me?" Madge asks as we continue into the cafeteria.

"It's Katniss. It was weird. A Katniss with feelings is not something I'm used to."

She laughs, "Yeah. It's not normal."

* * *

The day goes by slowly. In the morning, I train for District 2 and the war, then in the afternoon I make bombs. I don't tell Madge I'm making bombs to kill people in the war. I don't know how she'd take it; if she'd look at me differently. I don't know what she would think. My mom knows I'm designing bombs, and she doesn't say anything about it, I just wonder what she really thinks about it.

The one we were working on a while ago, dropping a bomb, and then another when medics went to move in to help, it worked and now they expect us to mass produce them for the war. I'm not the one mass producing them, but it still gives me a sense of strange pride to know that I'm helping the war effort, helping to bring the Capitol down.

Hell, I'm turning into one of them.

Beetee and I are still down here, long past dinnertime still trying to work out a glitch in one of our other projects. He thinks that there's something wrong with the wiring, and I think there's something wrong with the coding we put in it, so we just took it all apart and started over.

Making bombs is hard work. One false move and you're blown sky-high, or you blow up District 13. Either one would be pretty bad.

Turns out Beetee was right and the wiring was bad. The small wire that was supposed to be connected to the home wire wasn't and it wasn't detonating. This is a prototype and we can blow these up, as long as they're in some sort of box thing where the debris won't get scattered around the room.

When we try it again, it denotates instantly, and we call it a day. Good enough for me. Beetee's on the same level I am, so we go up together, showing our badges to the security guy and he lets us go. I think he's getting used to us by now.

On the way up, we talk about other ideas for bombs and I really think I'm going to turn out to be one of them. I push the thought to the back of my mind as I enter our compartment. My mom's the only one still up and I go to say something, but she raises her finger to her lips to quiet me. Posy's asleep on the floor.

"How in the world does she fall asleep on the floor?" I mutter and my mother gives a small chuckle.

"Who knows, Gale?" She scoops the small girl up and starts to carry her away.

"Hey, Ma? Is Madge here?"

She nods, and then whispers, "Went to bed right after dinner, poor girl was exhausted." I grin a little, remembering Madge asking me if she could go to bed earlier. I'm not going to be the one to deprive her of her sleep. Quietly, I tell my mother goodnight and slip into my room, where a passed out Madge lies. I smile at her sleeping form as I crawl up next to her and pull her closer to me.

She mutters something like 'finally', and then drops her head onto my chest. She's like a damn angel. With her golden hair and paler skin, she really does look like one. She's so beautiful, too. Inside and out. From her beautiful eyes to her beautiful, gentle heart. I mean, she's perfect, really.

Damn. Because of one girl, I'm turning into a sap.

I tighten my arms around her small waist and wonder what my dad would've thought of her. I'm sure he would've loved her, too. She's _Madge_, you have to love her.

At first, I really didn't know how our relationship was going to work. I mean, she's the Mayor's Daughter, I was an illegal hunter from the Seam.

_"You know, I could take you to the woods." I murmur in her ear once I catch up to her in town. She must've not known I was following her because she jumps a little but then turns._

_"Would you?" She asks, eyes glistening. I know she wants to go, I know she does._

_I nod, "Yeah." So far, she will be the only girl I've taken to the woods. Most of them just stayed at the slag heap. "But are you gonna change your shoes? Not good for walking." I say, taking a dig at her status._

_"Oh, shut up." She mutters, shoving me away a little._

_I snicker at her and she gives me a glare. "I'll get you in a few?"_

_"Just come with me, I won't be long." She says, waving off my offer._

_I nod slowly, and then follow her. She walks right up the steps and beckons for me to follow. I follow, amused that she's letting me in her house. She hurries upstairs to go change and I walk around the living room. Everything's much more neat and orderly here than at my house. The tables are dusted off and the floors don't creak when you walk around here. _

_I tap out a tune on the piano, before, "Who are you?" _

_Quickly, I whip my head around to find myself face to face with the mayor._

_"Uh, Gale, sir, Gale Hawthorne." I force out and he stares at me another moment._

_"If you don't mind me asking, why are you in my house?"_

_"I, uh-" I pause as Madge comes back down the stairs. She's actually changed all the way, into some old jeans and a t-shirt._

_"Daddy, he's just taking me out." She doesn't say 'out of the district' and I'm glad. _

_Her father gives her a look and she bites her lip, blushing. Then, he moves across the room and holds out his hand to me. I take it, and shake it firmly._

_"So you're the one who's captured my daughter's heart."_

_"Dad!" Madge says quickly, face bright red, and rubs her eyes trying not to look at me._

_"I guess, you could say that." I smirk at her and she sticks her tongue out at me._

_"Don't keep her out too late." Her says, giving me a stern look, and I nod. As much as Madge didn't want it, I've met her father. I guess she didn't think it would go well, but it's going fine._

_"Wouldn't dare too, sir." And with that, Madge shoves me out of her house and follows, burying her face in my back._

_"That was mortifying."_

_"I thought it was pretty funny." I voice and she moves her face from my back and glares at me._

_"You weren't the one being teased!" She protests, shoving me a long._

_When we finally reach the fence, she just kind of stares at it for a moment, and then kicks it with her foot. _

_"What? Getting cold feet?"_

_"No." She hisses and then crawls under the fence and I follow, laughing. As soon as we're out of the District, she lightens up and is more of herself. She laughs more and smiles more. I guess she feels trapped in the District. _

_When we get to a certain point, she stops talking and just looks around. This is the first time I've actually taken her to the woods, the first time she was in them she followed me most of the way._

_I link my hand with hers and keep leading her away as her mouth keeps dropping. When a bird swoops above us, she lets out a small shriek and I stop, turning around._

_"What? Scared of birds?" I tease, and then she nods. "Really?"_

_"Yeah, really."_

_"Why?" She doesn't respond, just kicks the ground with her shoe, "C'mon, Madge. You can talk to me, I won't laugh."_

_"Ever since the Games when the birds swarmed one of the last people they've freaked me out." She admits honestly, still staring at the ground. Yeah, I remember that. Still feel disgusted whenever that Games is on tv, showing the dead corpse, bloody and disfigured._

_"Well those birds," I point up to the treetops and her eyes follow, "aren't going to hurt you. Won't let them." I say, shaking the quiver on my back and she slowly nods. "C'mon, I want to show you something."_

_I lead her to a hill that my dad showed me when I was younger._

_"What's so important about a hill?"_

_"Just wait a little and you'll see." She huffs sarcastically and sits down on the hill, playing with some of the grass. Right now, even in an old t-shirt and old jeans, in the setting sun, she really does look like an angel. She catches me staring at her and smirks._

_"Enjoying the view?" I laugh and sit down next to her and she throws some grass at me. At this point, I really don't know how I feel about her. I know I like her, a lot, I just don't know to what extent. What happens when Katniss gets back, if she gets back? And what about Mellark?_

_"Gale," She snaps her fingers in front of my face and I listen to her, "I asked you something."_

_"What'd you ask?"_

_She rolls her eyes and repeats her question, "Do you think they're going to make it?" I know she's talking about the Games. Currently, Katniss and Mellark are holed up in a cave after the feast. A lot of kissing. _

_I sigh and flop backwards, putting my hands behind my head and she follows suit, resting her chin on my chest. "I dunno." I speak honestly, "Do you?" She sits up, staring at the horizon, then rubs her eyes. _

_"I think.. I don't know. Everything's just confusing. Why they suddenly changed the rules. They don't do that normally."_

_"Maybe they're feeling nice?"_

_She snorts and then spits out, "Nice, yeah, sure. These people have been coming to stay in my house every year for my entire life, and I learned pretty quickly that they're not." This is a side to Madge I don't see much. The fire in her is different than me, but it's there. "I just don't see why they're doing the whole two Victor's thing."_

_"Young love?" I offer, and bit distracted by her hair. It's like damn sunshine when the sun actually hits it._

_"I don't think they're doing it for love. When have they ever felt sentimental about that? Yeah, never." I pull my eyes away from her hair and look at her face, damn, her eyes are there too. _

_"So you're saying..." I trail off, I don't know what she's saying._

_"All I'm saying is that in the end when it comes down to the two of them and they change the rules again, I'm not going to be surprised."_

_"So you're saying that it's all for show?"_

_She nods, and then speaks in a dry voice, "Yeah. To make the most tragic love story there's ever been."_

_"Oh." I try to think about how Katniss could end up dying in this, but I can't. I really can't. I'm focused on Madge as she stares down at the grass. I focus on the sunlight hitting her hair and the deep blue that's in her eyes. I focus on the curve of her nose and on her lips. God, I want to kiss her._

_"Gale?"_

_"Hm?"_

_"What would you do if we were in the Games?"_

_I grunt. "Stay alive."_

_"Would you kill anyone?"_

_"I'm sure I would, when I had too. I wouldn't be one of those crazed killers who just runs around killing aimlessly." Pause. "I wouldn't be able to kill one person, though."_

_"Who?"_

_"Honestly, I think you would know this. I wouldn't be able to kill _you_ because I'd be bending over backwards trying to keep you alive."_

* * *

_A/N: I thought it was time for a flashback. Anyways, in the next few chapters, the war's going to be getting closer which means I have to get out Mockingjay and use that, but I don't want too, because Mockingjay sucked, in my opinion. I'll probably keep some aspects, but some I'm changing completely. Maybe less people will die. I dunno. Haven't gotten that far. Thoughts? _


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: Still don't own the characters. Ugh.**

* * *

Madge starts training the day before we leave for 2, and I'm not exactly happy that she's going to have to fight, but I can't say anything about it because then Coin could use the fact that I love her against me. She would do that.

Haymitch said that Coin wants Delly and Madge to see Mellark this afternoon after lunch. I'm not very happy about that either. What if he freaks out and tries to strangle not only Delly but Madge too?

I'm fidgeting the entire morning during Command and training. I have trouble hitting the target and Thom keeps messing with me about it. He's not exactly doing any better but I don't mention it. He notices.

"What's with you today?"

"Nothing."

"I'm not an idiot." He pauses to clean off his gun, "Problems with Madge?"

I look at him like he's crazy, "Really? You honestly jump to that?" Of course, there aren't any problems between us, that's just Thom.

"I'm messing with you. What's really going on?"

"Remember how Mellark was hijacked and tries to strangle people?"

"Yeah?"

"Coin wants Madge and Delly Cartwright to go in and talk to them."

"Are you going to let her?" He shoots a few and I try to do the same but miss every one of them.

"Have no choice. If I tell Coin I don't want her to go in, she'll know that I'm dating her which would essentially cause Coin to use her against me." I drop my voice and Thom listens while reloading his gun before firing another round.

"Is that really a bad thing?"

"_Yes_," I stress to him as I finally hit the target, "That's bad. Coin uses people against them to get what she wants. I don't want her to use Madge against me so I'll, I dunno, vote for Coin or whatever."

"Well you're in trouble. What if he tries to strangle Madge?"

"Don't even go there." I force out, and then sigh, "I would be really mad, let's just go with that."

"Think you'd be more than mad, mate." Thom mutters, rolling his eyes before shooting some more.

Trying to get the subject away from Madge, I move on. "How's Bristel?"

He then proceeds to talk about how much better she is and how she's going to start training the same day as Madge and all that stuff.

"You remember how sore we were after the first day of training?" I ask and he stops short.

"Oh, God, Bristel's gonna die."

"I'm sure Madge isn't going to be much better, either."

"At least you're leaving the next day. You don't have to deal with them griping about it."

"I will for one day, Thom." I grumble and he chuckles about something. "What?"

"I wonder what they're going to have to do the first day."

"Probably the same thing we did." First day was a beating. Seven miles, weights, and then guns. Not fun. But Thom and I were used to the pain because of breaking our back everyday in the mines. Bristel and Madge have never been in the mines, so they don't know the pain. But, they did survive in the woods for weeks, even though they got themselves nearly killed in the process. Maybe they'll be able to handle it.

"How's Madge doing?"

"Good," I grin to myself, "She's on crutches and she hates them."

"Typical." Thom mutters, laughing. "She staying with you?" I nod and he quirks his eyebrows.

"Oh, _shove off_." I shove him away as he cackles at me. It's not like we'd try that when my family is in the same compartment as us; we're not idiots. That doesn't mean that we haven't done it before, because we have, but only once and that was the most amazing thing ever. That was before the Quell, after Katniss and Mellark left. I think it was a few days before they started.

"Earth to Gale?" Thom says, smirking at me while I pull my thoughts out of how beautiful Madge is.

"Sorry," I mutter, rolling my eyes, "I'm distracted today."

"Obviously." We quiet down and keep shooting, Thom most likely thinking about Bristel, and me definitely thinking about Madge. I can't wait for her to get off of the crutches, I hate them too. I feel really bad when I accidentally hurt her when I'm with her. She tries to hide it from me, but I can tell by how well I know Madge.

Training ends and I practically sprint to where Mellark is being held. Delly, or I'm assuming it's Delly, is getting ready to go in, Katniss is standing by the glass, peering in at Mellark. She gives me a tight nod and I return the gesture, looking away. I find Madge talking to Haymitch on what to say and what not to say.

He finishes talking to her and I approach her slowly, and she smiles at me. "You ready for this?" I murmur in her ear and she slowly shakes her head. I pull her aside quickly. "What's wrong?"

She rests her crutches on the wall and buries her face in my chest. My arms wrap around her shoulders, and then drop to her waist as I nuzzle her neck. "What's wrong, Madge?" I notice she's barely standing on her injured leg, but at least it can support her weight a little.

"What if Peeta tries to strangle me, or Delly?"

I sigh and then finally say, "Madge, if he so much as touches you, or screams at you, he'll be out before you even can blink, Madge. Plus, I'm not going to let him strangle you, okay?" She nods and I nuzzle her neck again. She murmurs something that I don't catch. "Hm?"

"I said I love you." She whispers, getting a smile out of me.

"I love you, too." I try to avoid the fact that I know Katniss is watching us. I know she is, I've known Katniss for years. I break our embrace and hand her the crutches again as Haymitch smirks at me from behind Madge. I roll my eyes at him as Delly enters Mellark's cell. Instantly, the atmosphere becomes tense, as Mellark's eyes snap open.

"Delly? What are you doing here?" He seems fine, but I doubt he is.

"Peeta!" I get the sense that this girl would annoy me beyond belief. My arm slips around Madge's waist the best it can with the crutches as Delly talks to Peeta. It ends in a one-sided screaming match and Delly comes out shaking. Mellark ends up sedated and Madge looks terrified to go in there. They wait twenty minutes before sending her in. I give her a small squeeze before letting her go in. He's awake now, looking confused.

"Madge." Mellark says, the complete anger from twenty minutes ago forgotten.

"Peeta."

"They got you too, huh?" He spits out, gesturing to Madge's crutches.

"No. I was in the woods. I broke my leg." She says, somewhat calmly. If I didn't know her at all, I would think that she's completely fine and isn't freaking out, but I do know her, and I know she's terrified.

"Oh." Mellark forces out, fists clenching and unclenching quickly.

"They say I can help you remember." She finally forces out and Peeta stops, staring at her.

"Delly tried. I'm sure you saw how that went." He spits out at her and she moves closer to him, leaning on her crutches.

"Yeah. I did."

"Did your family make it out?" He asks suddenly, his eyes diverting to hers and she stumbles on her words.

"I.. No. They didn't."

"Not even the Mayor?" He scoffs, attempting to cross his arms, but can't because of the restraints. I want to take Madge out of there now, and not let her go in again. I don't like this at all.

"N-no." Madge forces out and my jaw clenches. She _hates _talking about her parents. I try not to mention them much, but I am thinking about them. Her father liked me at first but then after the Victory Tour he thought I was going to get her killed by fratenizing with Katniss. I only met her mom once, and I think she liked me, I never asked Madge what her mother thought of me.

Mellark pauses, having an inner mental conversation with himself. "Did they burn up in the fire?"

She nods slowly and she swallows. I want her out of there now.

"Who's fault is it?" He forces out, nearly losing it again, but, somehow, keeps it under control.

"Peeta?" Madge asks gently, clenching the rung on her crutch.

"Who's fault is it?!" Peeta raises his voice at her and my fists are clenching. Katniss's knuckles are white on the frame of the window, and her eyes are closed shut.

"The Capitol's, Peeta!" She chokes out and Peeta loses it.

"_No! _It's her fault! _She_ did this! Not the Capitol, but her! _Katniss_ did this!" Now he's screaming at her completely and he suddenly goes lax. They sedated him. Madge is shaking now. She slowly wobbles back out and her eyes locate me immediately. Then, she's hobbling towards me and rests the crutches on the wall as my arms wrap around her shoulders. I _hated_ that she was in there.

"That's not Peeta." She says into the air, and Haymitch scoffs.

"No shit, Sherlock." I narrow my eyes at him and he smirks. While everyone talks about what to do about Peeta, Katniss comes over to the two of us and Madge breaks our embrace.

"I'm so sorry, Katniss. I didn't realize how bad it was and.." She trails off and Katniss nods.

"I don't think anyone knew." She mumbles before locking eyes with me. In an instant, I know she's upset. She does love Peeta, even if she doesn't know it. Maybe she does, maybe she doesn't. She's just so oblivious to everything, really. It's a wonder how she didn't figure out Madge and I were dating. Katniss goes over to Haymitch and starts to talk. No one pays attention to Madge and I.

"You okay?" I ask gently, while pushing a piece of her hair behind her ear and then cupping her cheek. She nods.

"A little shaken up, but okay." She murmurs. I honestly don't think she's okay. One of her best friends just screamed at her, yelling horrible things, and she says she's okay.

I press a gentle kiss to her lips. "Are you sure you're okay?" I murmur and she nods yet again, burying her face into my chest. By now, people are clearing out, all that's left is a doctor and Haymitch.

"You smell bad." She mutters and I laugh a little.

"I did come straight from training, Madge." She lets out a bubble of laughter, before she pulls away.

"Well then that's why." I press my lips onto her forehead once, quickly and she smiles, "That's not going to get you out of a shower, Gale." Then, I kiss her nose. "Still not going to work." She smirks as my lips find hers, finally. Quickly, I deepen the kiss, but she laughs and shoves me away. "Take a shower. Then we'll see." She smirks again as I kiss below her ear.

"Fine. You're horrible, you know that?" I mutter and finally release her, even though I don't want too. She grabs her crutches, and starts to walk away. Once out the door, she turns around, smirking.

"Are you coming or not?" She smirks as I go to catch up to her.

* * *

_A/N: Just a little fluff, there can never be too much fluff, in my opinion c: anyways, Madge's first day of training should be next chapter. This should be great. Review!_


	10. Chapter 10

The next few days pass quickly. On the fourth day after Madge sees Peeta, she's able to walk on her leg again, without pain. She celebrates by running around the compartment with Posy on her back. Everyone's laughing, especially Madge and Posy. I'm just happy that Madge can walk again.

On the fifth day, two days before Madge starts training, three before I leave, after Madge and I come home after our last evening activity, to find my mother tapping her foot.

"You need to talk to your brother." She says sternly, pointing at me.

"I'm just gonna go say hi to Bristel." Madge murmurs to me and then slowly retreats out the door.

"What's wrong?" I ask and she sighs.

"Rory needs to talk to you. He's in his room." She drops her voice a little, "And just to let you know, I don't believe what he's saying." I nod slowly, and then go into Rory and Vick's room. Rory's there, staring at the ceiling. Vick's just walking around.

"Hey, Vick? Could you give us a minute?" He nods, staring at me before leaving. I sit down on the edge of Rory's bed and he doesn't look at me. "What's up?"

"Nothing." He spits out bitterly.

"Well then what's wrong?" I don't have time for this right now.

"Do I really have to spell it out for you?" He still sounds bitter.

"Spell what?" I really don't see where he's getting at. He's avoiding the point, I know he is.

"What I find amazing," he starts, still staring at the ceiling, "is that when we all thought Madge was dead, you were upset all the time but I expected you would talk to us, but you didn't. And then, when Madge actually turns up and isn't dead, you're all happy and stuff but you still don't talk to us!"

I stare at him for a moment. "So you're saying..?"

"What I'm saying is that you're abandoning us for her!"

"Rory, I'm not abandoning you guys—"

"Really, because it really seems like it."

"Rory, listen—"

"No, you listen! I get that you just found her and all and stuff but at least spend some time with your family! We never see you anymore because of your stupid job and then with Madge around it's like you've disappeared!"

"Rory, I would pick you guys over her any day." As much as I don't want to say it, it's true. Family is family. Family comes first. Though, Madge is practically family.. The small voice in my head says quietly, but I shake it off. Family first.

"I doubt that. I really do." He spits out and I sigh.

"Rory, you're my brother and she's my girlfriend. I can love you both. I love you both a lot, Rory."

"If you love her so much why don't you just marry her?" He spouts out, crossing his arms and sitting up. Why is he so worked up about this?

"Well that was the plan Rory." He silences himself, staring at me in shock. "Don't act so surprised. I figured you could guess that much." Now I sound bitter. He doesn't have to get all freaked out about this. It's pretty much common knowledge that I'm going to marry Madge. I wasn't planning on asking her as soon as the war was over, too many things will be going on. I've even asked her mom, when she was alive.

"You could at least act like we exist!"

"Rory, listen, I'm sorry if it seems like I'm forgetting you guys because of Madge, but I can't help it what I have to do or how much time I spend with Madge because I can't help it either. Now can you please get over this?"

He swallows thickly, before slightly moving his head. "I will try to be better about it, okay?" I say and he nods before lying back down.

"Can you go now? I'm taking a nap."

"Fine, fine." I raise my hands in surrender and retreat from the room where Vick and Posy are playing some sort of game as my mom watches. I go over to her and she raises her eyebrow.

"All better?"

"Yeah. Kid was basically trying to say that I spend too much time with Madge."

"You know I don't think that, right Gale?"

"I know you don't. That's just what he thought." I pause as she laughs at Posy pinning Vick down on the ground. "Kid also thought I was going to marry Madge."

At this, she pulls me into the small kitchenette and stares at me for a moment, before putting her hands on my cheeks and saying, "My little boy is growing up."

"Ma, stop, please." I mutter and remove her hands. "It's not that big of a deal."

"Not that big of a deal, Gale, it is!"

"Ma, I don't even know if I'm going to ask her, and if I do, then it'll be in a few years. She's seventeen, Ma. And I'm nineteen." I love how she's freaking out and we aren't even engaged or even close to it. Only dating.

"Gale, if you love this girl, then yes, you should marry her. And we're all perfectly fine with Madge, and your friends like her too."

I sigh. "You're right. Now don't go telling anyone about this conversation, she doesn't need to know about this, especially since she's seventeen years old." My mom nods and then leaves and walks back to the living room to Vick and Posy, while I stay in the kitchenette, leaning against the counter.

Did I really just have that conversation? I can't believe I'm already thinking about that when the war isn't even over yet. Yeah, we have a pretty good chance of winning, but what if something goes wrong? What if she dies, or gets seriously injured in the war? Honesty, I don't know if I could handle that. Not again, the first time that I thought she died was bad enough. What if I die? What if she doesn't even want to be with me? I immediately shake that thought out of my head. No, I'm pretty sure that she does, I mean, she said that she was going to come with me after the war, to wherever I end up going.

Man. Who would've thought that this would be so complicated?

* * *

"What do you even do here?" Madge asks me the morning that she starts training.

"Train. Work." I grunt out as we walk to the cafeteria for breakfast. She links our hands together and I grin. I'm so glad I can actually hold her hand now, because with the crutches, I couldn't.

"Well what kind of work?"

"Special defense, that's pretty much it." I don't elaborate on what special defense actually is, and she doesn't ask.

Around the end of breakfast, Thom and Bristel come over, Bristel looking bitter. "You ready to die?" She asks Madge and she chews her lip before shaking her head.

"Trust me, it isn't fun." Thom says under his breath and Bristel swats him gently as I stand up and take both mine and Madge's tray to throw away. The three of them follow, and I take Madge's hand and she squeezes my hand gently as Thom and I lead Bristel and Madge downstairs to where they'll train. Once there, Madge watches the other class finish and turns to me, wringing her hands.

"You'll come and get me after it's over, right?"

I nod and smile at her. "Course I will. I'll be here." She turns back around to face the class coming out, who all look beat up and dripping wet. I hear one of them say that's it's pouring down rain outside. "Don't die," I pause as she turns back around to face me, "or drown. Both are highly likely." She swats me and then smiles at me slightly.

"See you later." She murmurs, pressing her lips onto mine quickly. I grin and watch her and Bristel go into their possible doom. Thom's giving me the lovey-dovey eyes and I shove him into a wall as we walk back upstairs.

"Hope they don't die." Thom mutters and I chuckle.

"It's possible. Did you see the other class?"

"They looked half dead. Think they'll be like that?"

"Who knows. They have the worst trainer today."

"Yay." Thom says as the elevator creaks.

* * *

A couple hours pass, and I make more bombs. Then, go into the woods with Katniss for a little. She doesn't say much, just shoots when she sees something. But I'm used to that. We wouldn't talk much when we would hunt back home, but everything's different now. She's been through a lot, and I get that. Madge and I made it essentially worse when she found out that we're dating. I think she's upset because we both have someone we can count on, and she doesn't have anyone. Only a crazed seventeen year old boy who hates her, but that doesn't count.

Thom and I meet up again and try not to think about what they're going to be like after training. They're strong, I'm sure they won't give up on it. When they do finally come out, they're both dripping wet and seem irritated.

"So? How was it?" She drops into the chair next to me and starts to dry off with the towel provided.

"It sucked. I'm never moving again."

"Well you have to move to get upstairs." She groans and she buries her head in my shoulder. I glance at Bristel and find that she's not doing so well either. Thom's looking at me as if to say 'really?' I turn back to Madge to find she's half asleep. "C'mon, you. Let's get upstairs and then you can sleep." She nods slowly and I help her stand up.

"My legs feel like jelly." She murmurs when we get in the elevator and she leans against me.

"Mmhmm. It'll feel better after a shower." I tell her as she nods against me. I lead her to the compartment and she slowly follows, trailing behind. Quickly, she gets into the shower and I sit with Posy and Vick. Rory hasn't spoken to me since he talked to me about spending too much time with Madge. Posy keeps babbling on about what she did today and I listen enthusiastically. She may be silly, but she is my sister. Vick sits in another chair reading some book that I'm sure we weren't allowed to read back in 12.

"What're you reading?" He hands me th book after marking his place in it and I examine it. It's a pretty thick book, around three-hundred pages. Something about a wizard, I dunno. Reading was never exactly my favorite thing to do.

I'm starting to think Madge has fallen asleep in the shower. She's been in there for a while. I stand to go check on her when she comes out, in dry clothes, hair dripping all around her. She collapses onto the couch and rubs her eyes, groaning.

"Are you okay?" Posy asks Madge, clambering into Madge's lap. Madge nods while yawning.

"Yeah. Just a little tired, Posy." She murmurs, and her head falls to rest on the couch. Posy begins talking to Madge and Madge will numbly answer 'yes', or 'that's great, Posy' and I grin a little.

I stand to go shower, and Madge nods a little at me before turning back to Posy. Quickly, I hop in the shower and I find the water pressure is very low today. That makes it so much harder to shower in District 13. When I come back out, Posy and Madge are both asleep on the couch. Posy's tucked into Madge's side and Madge is laying down on the couch, her head on one of the uncomfortable throw pillows. Vick doesn't seem to have noticed.

I can't get over how Madge is going to be a phenomenal mother. She knows exactly how to get along with kids, I mean look at Posy. Posy immediately clicked with her, and Madge loves her anyways.

Quickly, I pry Posy from Madge and slowly bring the girl to her room before tucking her under the scratchy sheets. The first night here, she complained about how she missed home and how the sheets were uncomfortable. Trust me, I thought the same thing, but I was a bit occupied with the thought that I lost Madge. It pangs my head, freaking me out. But she's here. Yeah. She's in the living room, asleep on the couch. Yeah.

When I go back into the living room, Vick's gone, probably to go to dinner or something like that. Careful, I scoop Madge up and manuever into my room before setting her gently on the bed and covering her up. She hasn't moved an inch from when I put her down on the bed. That's what training does to you. I brush her blonde hair out of her face and just watch her for a moment. When she's asleep, she looks even younger than she already is. She looks even more vulnerable than I know she is. The mere thought of her having to fight, to kill, doesn't sit well with me.

Nothing seems to these days.

* * *

_A/N: Sorry if this took forever. I had four tests last week, then exams this week, so I don't know if you'll get an update during the week. Hope you enjoyed!_


	11. Chapter 11

It takes me a really long time to fall asleep that night. Knowing that I have to go into a possible war zone the next morning makes me nervous. With my luck, I'm going to get shot or something. It's not like I'm going to get shot, but that would happen to me.

Madge shifts in her sleep, moving closer to me. My arms instinctively tighten around her, pulling her petite body towards me. Pressing a soft kiss to her forehead, she wakes.

"Are you still up?" She murmurs, sleep evident in her voice.

"Can't sleep." I grunt, and she yawns. "Go back to sleep, Madge." She snuggles closer to me, burying her face into my chest, pulling the covers closer around her. "Are you cold?"

She shrugs a little. "You're just really warm." I chuckle and she fades off to sleep again. Eventually, I do too.

* * *

_"Gale?" Madge asks me timidly, two days after Katniss and Mellark have left for the Quell. I must say that I've been in a pretty bad mood since, to everyone other than Madge, really._

_"Yeah?"_

_"Can.. Can you meet my mom?" I turn to look at her and she looks down, avoiding my eyes, like she's embarrassed._

_"Of course I'll meet her." She looks back up, and I give her a smile. "Just, I'm wondering why you want me to meet your mom when your dad doesn't want me anywhere near you."_

_"My dad won't be home, Gale. I want you to meet her." She mumbles, and I nod, pressing a soft kiss onto her lips._

_ "I'll meet her. As long as your dad is not home."_

_"He won't be. Trust me." She murmurs, lacing her fingers through mine and leading me from next to the bakery to her house. Once inside, she immediately leads me up the stairs, leaving me no time to admire the decor. Not that I'd actually look at it, really, she doesn't mind where I live, so I shouldn't mind where she lives. _

_Upstairs, she stops outside of a room and tells me to wait. I lean lazily against the door frame, waiting for her to come back out. It's a couple of minutes before she does, and when she does, she gives me small smile._

_"She just woke up, so.."_

_"So don't be loud?" I offer and she bites her lip and nods._

_"Trust me. I got it." I murmur, brushing a piece of her hair behind her ear and kissing her forehead. She takes my hand again, leading me into the room. What I expected was a frail, old woman. What I was not expecting was an alert woman who looks exactly like Madge. Literally, even down to the way her eyes crinkle when she smiles, it's the same. _

_I stand a little behind Madge as she talks. "Mom, this is.."_

_"You must be Gale." Mrs. Undersee says clearly, blue eyes the exact shade of Madge's peering into mine. "Madge talks very fondly of you." Without even looking down at Madge, I know that she's blushing. "Well, c'mon boy, I don't bite." Yup. This is Madge's mom._

_I walk around Madge to shake her mothers hand. She has a firm grip, something I didn't expect from a woman who drowns herself in morphling all year. "Gale Hawthorne, Mrs. Undersee."_

_"I know. I've heard a lot about you." I make a glance at Madge to find her face beet red. Smirking slightly at her, I turn back to Mrs. Undersee._

_"Have you? I didn't realize that I was a topic here."_

_"Gale!" Madge groans, rubbing her face and both me and Mrs. Undersee laugh, while Madge groans some more._

_"Honestly, you people are out to get me." She huffs and I grin at her._

_"Madge, dear, would you go get me a glass of water?" Madge, who's face is still red, stands and nods, going down to the kitchen._

_Mrs. Undersee stares at me for a moment before she speaks. "You work, don't you?"_

_"Yes, ma'am, in the mines every day."_

_"Not today," she notes, raising her eyebrows, "Are you skipping?"_

_"No, ma'am, today's Sunday. We don't have work on Sunday's."_

_"So I assume that is why Madge is never home on Saturday nights, or Sunday's?"_

_"Um," I pause, rubbing the back of my neck awkwardly, "I guess?"_

_Mrs. Undersee laughs, a sound exactly like Madge's, and she changes the subject. "Madge does talk a lot about you, you know."_

_"Does she now?"_

_"Yes. Every time I'm awake, she'll come in and talk to me about you."_

_"Oh." I pause, to rub my neck again. "She really is something else." I murmur, mostly to myself, but Mrs. Undersee hears me._

_"Yes, she is. And I swear to God, if you hurt her, I will personally come to your house, no matter what shape I'm in, or what time it is, and I will whip your ass."_

_I let out a shaky laugh. "I can promise you, ma'am, I will not be hurting her anytime soon. Hurting her is the last thing that I want to do."_

_Mrs. Undersee stares for a moment, and then smiles at me, God she's exactly like Madge! "You're a good man. You'll protect her, correct?"_

_I nod quickly. "I'm going to protect her with my life, ma'am." _

I have to protect her, I made her _mother _a vow that I would. And now that her mother is most likely dead, I have to fulfil it.

* * *

The next morning, before I leave, I shake Madge awake gently. She groans and tries to roll on her side.

"I'm so sore. I can't even move." She grumbles, and I slowly sit her up, despite her protests and wrap her in a tight hug.

"It'll get better," I murmur, rubbing circles on her back to ease the tension. "I have to leave soon." Her arms tighten around me at these words.

"I don't want you to go," she starts, climbing into my lap and tucking her feet under her yawning, "but you have too." I nod, and she sighs, linking her hands around my neck.

"I'll be back in a week, you know," I make out before pressing my lips onto hers quickly. She slowly rubs the sleep out of her eyes, yawning again, going to crack her back.

"Too long. Who's going to get me up in the morning?" I laugh against her lips and I feel her smile.

"Guess I'll have to set Posy on that job. Get her to," Kiss, "jump on you," Kiss, "every morning." She smiles sleepily again, tightening her grip around me. Her head finally falls against my chest and I kiss the top of her head slowly, before resting my chin on her head. "I love you. Just in case something happens."

"Don't even go there, Gale." She mumbles quickly, "nothing is going to happen. But I love you." I just sit there, holding her for a little until the time comes that I have to leave. I give her another kiss, and then grab the bag I was assigned to bring before changing into the military uniform I was also assigned.

I give Madge a small wave before heading out of the room. In the living room, I find Vick and Posy already up. They're the two early risers in the family. I give them both hugs and then bend down to Posy.

"Can you do something for me?" She nods enthusiastically and I grin. "Make sure you jump on Madge every morning to get her up." She giggles and then nods again. "That's my girl."

Vick wraps his wiry arms around me quickly. "Ma up?" He nods, and I go into her room.

"Ma?" I pause and she smiles at me from her place sitting on the bed. "I have to go now."

She stands and hurries over to me. "My little boy. Going off to fight."

"Ma, I'm not going to fight. I do not know what we're doing there." That's a lie, I know we're going to blow something up. Don't know what, but I guess that's why I'm going on this trip. To blow stuff up. The thought makes me cringe inwardly.

"Still. You'll always be my little boy."

"Ma, I'm not dying." She gives me a pointed look and I grin. "Love you. I have to go now. Tell Rory I said I love him." I call over my shoulder and hurry out the door. On the way down to the hovercraft station, I end up in the same hovercraft as Katniss.

It's silent for a minute. "So what are we actually going to do?"

"Blow something up." I grunt, fiddling with a string on my uniform to keep myself occupied. Boggs hands me a communicator to put in my ear in case everyone gets separated.

"So, our mission today," Boggs starts, "is to destroy District 2's Center of Operations, or the Nut. We will either destroy is from the inside out, and force all of the workers out to the town square, or blow up the outside of it, and force them out."

Instantly, my mind is all over the place. I'm sure that everyone can practically see the gears turning in my head. The easiest way would be to block all of the entrances but one, forcing them all out there. Then, having them make their way to the square where we'll be situated.

I voice my thoughts and Boggs nods. "And then, in the Town Square, our Mockingjay will give a speech trying to get them on our side." Katniss looks a little alarmed that she has to make a speech, so I'm assuming that she had no idea about it until now. But she nods anyways.

When the hovercraft lands, we're met by Lyme, a past Victor of the Hunger Games. They won a past HUnger Games, though I don't know which Games it is. Boggs has me tell her what I thought of and she nods slowly, before turning to the Nut, or what I think is the nut.

"I say we blow up all entrances but the train station one, so that all of the people inside will be forced to go out that way, unto the town square. Sound good?"

Most of us nod, and then go to set everything up.

* * *

Finally, on the sixth day we're in District 2, everything is set. The bombs are up, and the dentator is in my hand right now. When I'm told to press the button, I do. And immediately, my head hurts as the smoke and echoing of the miners yelling and screaming reaches me. My hands grip onto the railing that I'm standing by and I squeeze my eyes shut. I know what it's like to be in a collapse. I know how it feels, and they are now experiencing it first hand.

People won't make it out of there alive. It's like a repeat in history for me. It's like I'm in the mines again, being crushed under tons of rock. It's like I'm thirteen again, waiting for a dad who won't come out. Waiting.

I glance over at Katniss and find that she has gone pale too. She's remembering. When her eyes meet mine, it's like the day we met in the woods, the first time we met in the woods. Distrustful, scared, unknowing. It's like nothing has changed. I can read her thoughts, she can read mine.

* * *

_A/N: So life's just been crazy. I've been busy with school, track season is coming around and life has just gotten complicated. So I'm sorry if the updates for any of my stories are a little slow!_


	12. Chapter 12

When we get back to District 13, it's three in the morning. We got caught up in District 2 after some of the miners got out. Katniss got shot, communications went down, it was just not a good day for any of us. And, as soon as we get home, I'm sent to the hospital to get cleaned up from the fighting that broke out. It's not like I even got shot, it's just blood from other people.

Finally, they let me go and I stagger back to my house slowly. I cannot wait to just pass out and actually sleep for the first time in a week. District 2 was nice, yeah I'll admit it, but it would've been a lot nicer if I wasn't there to blow up a mine and if Madge would've been there with me. I missed her so much in the one week I was gone. How am I going to handle being away from her when the war starts? There's a very slim chance that we'll be put on the same squad.

I quickly punch in the numbers on the key pad to my house and stumble into the living room. It's very quiet. I'm assuming that everyone's asleep. I go to check on Posy and find her fast asleep, clutching that old stuffed bear to her. Rory and Vick are passed out too. So is my mother.

Quietly, I go into my room where I'm assuming Madge is. But, when I look down at the bed, it's empty. Backtracking, I go into the living room and see if she's on the couch. No, not there either.

Too tired to do anything about it, I change and fall onto the bed. I'll find her tomorrow morning.

* * *

The next morning comes all too quickly. I'm still exhausted and cranky. When I finally manage to pull myself out of bed, I'm attacked by Posy.

"Well good morning to you too." I laugh and Posy giggles.

"I wanted to stay up until you got home by Mama wouldn't let me."

"You need your sleep, Pose." Vick and Rory give me hugs and then hurry out of the door. My mother, on the other hand, does not leave with them. I give her a quick hug and she returns the hug.

"I'm glad you're safe." She finally says, "We saw Katniss get shot."

"Yeah. I know. She's in the hospital now. Bullet barely touched her skin. Cinna made sure of that."

"That's good. Prim was freaking out when it happened." I grimace. I never thought of how her family would feel about it.

"So was everyone else, pretty much." I pause to tie my shoes, "Hey, Ma? Where's Madge?"

She sighs, and then finally talks. "That's why I stayed behind instead of going to breakfast. There's something you need to know, about Madge."

Immediately, I'm panicking. "Is she okay? Is she hurt?"

"In a way, yes. You should probably go talk to her, instead of me telling you." Quickly, I stand and hurry out the door. I'm halfway to the elevator when I realize that I don't even know where I'm going. Because I figured she'd just be living with us instead of actually going to her compartment, I never really thought to remember where it was. Well, now I'm kicking myself.

In the elevator, I meet Thom there. Before I can get anything out, he speaks, "You know she's pissed, right?"

"Figured that. What's wrong?"

"That's for you two to work out."

I groan, and then punch a random button on the elevator. "Where is she even?"

"In her compartment."

"Which is where?" I ask, grumbling at him.

"Floor 4, room 421." Quickly, I punch the number 4 button and wait. When it finally dings, I hurry out, and Thom follows behind me. "Just going to warn you, she hasn't exactly been in the best mood to anyone, maybe besides Rory or your mother." He disappears down the hallway, and I knock on her door. Moments later, it's opened.

Really, all I want to do is kiss her. But I can't because something's wrong. "Hey." I finally say and she sighs, leaning against the door frame.

"Hi." I'm sure I've said this before, and I'm going to keep saying it, but she looks so damn adorable in the morning.

"Can I talk to you?"

"What's to talk about?" She grumbles, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Like why you're upset."

She stares at me for a moment, and then beckons me inside. "You better come in." Slowly, I follow her inside and look around. It's a lot smaller than where my family lives, I can say that.

Madge leans against the back of the small couch in the small living room and crosses her arms again. "What's wrong Madge?"

She's quiet for a really long time, staring off into space behind me. "Do you not trust me or something, Gale?"

I'll say I'm taken aback by the comment. "What?"

"I said, do you not trust me?"

"What are you talking about? Of course I trust you." I murmur, trying to take her hand, but she rips it out of my grip and runs her hand through her hair.

"I'm talking about why you didn't tell me that you were making bombs." She finally spits out, and I get it. That's what she's all upset about.

"Madge, listen," She cuts me off.

"No, you listen. Gale, I love you, I really do. But if you lie to me about things, then what do you expect me to do?"

"I didn't lie to you, Madge," I try again, but she keeps talking.

"Yes, you did. You deliberately told me that you were in Special Defense. I thought that meant something about protecting the border, not making bombs to blow up innocent people!"

"Madge, listen to me. Please listen to me."

"Gale, no. I'm really hurt that you didn't tell me this. I tell you everything, Gale! Everything! Why can't you do the same?"

"I didn't tell you because," I stop talking. I don't know why I didn't tell her. "I didn't tell you because,"

"Exactly. Gale, I'm going to ask again. Do you not trust me? Yesterday, when we saw the feed of you pressing that button to blow up the mine, I felt so betrayed because you didn't tell me. You told your family, Katniss, Thom and Bristel, but you didn't tell me. I thought I could tell you anything, and I thought that you felt the same way. So I'll ask again. Do you not trust me at all? Is there anything else you're not telling me?" She takes a breath and I know she's holding back tears. Her face always looks like this when she's about to cry.

"Madge, I trust you. I do, it's just I didn't know how you would take it."

"Gale, I'd much rather take that then you not telling me about it!" She chokes and rubs her eyes. "All my life, I've wanted to feel trusted and loved. With you, that came true. But with this.. I just.. I just need a break. I can't handle this right now."

It's like my world is falling apart. "Madge, I-"

"Just leave me be. Please. Gale, please leave me alone." A couple tears leak out of her eyes and I reach to wipe them away. She jerks away from me, wiping her own eyes. "Please, Gale."

Finally, I force myself to leave her alone, give her some time to think. Some space.

* * *

Back in my family's compartment, I slam the door out of frustration, and Rory comes up to me and asks what's wrong, but I shove him away and go to my room. In the room, I nearly bang my head on the wall. I totally screwed this up. I should've told her from the start what I was doing to help with the war effort. I shouldn't have kept this from her. Now, she's never going to trust me again because she thinks that I don't trust her.

Don't get me wrong, I do trust Madge. I'd trust her with my life. I don't even know why I didn't tell her. Maybe it's because I was afraid that she'd look at me differently. Or that she'd think I was a monster.

I sit down on the edge of the bed and rub my eyes and run my hands through my hair. I completely screwed this up. Flopping backwards on the bed, I try to think of some way to fix this mess. Now, I'm not the smartest when it comes to relationships. I always manage to ruin it somehow. But I do know that trust is one of the most important things that you have to have in a relationship, and now Madge thinks that I don't trust her. If she would've just let me explain why I didn't tell her, then maybe I wouldn't be here right now.

God, I'm an asshole. I am a complete and total asshole. I don't bother getting up again for breakfast, partly because I'm really tired and I need to give Madge her space. After I'm positive she'll be in training, I leave my house. No one else is home, so it gives me peace and quiet for a little. Instead of staying home like I should, I go and visit Katniss in the hospital.

"Well you look bored." I say when I walk into her hospital room. She glares at me momentarily.

"And you look extremely tired." She mumbles and I wave it off. "Something happen?"

"Madge's mad at me." Katniss's eyes narrow, but then they widen again.

"What happened?"

"I didn't tell her I was making bombs and now she doesn't think I trust her."

Katniss is quiet for a moment, and then she starts talking. "She probably feels betrayed that you didn't tell her. And she's probably over thinking what that might mean, just to tell you."

"How do you know this?" Katniss is never one to talk about feelings.

"I'm a girl, I understand how we think."

"No, I mean you have the emotional range of a teaspoon. How are you getting all of that from one little thing?"

She glares again. "And you have the attention span of a flea. Like I said, I know how girls think."

I pause to think about that. Katniss is the most oblivious person in the world. How is she getting all that from one thing I told her?

"Wait, what do you mean by _over thinking_?"

"She's probably thinking of all of these worst case scenarios. Such as you're cheating, you've been using her, you don't love her anymore, etcetera, etcetera."

"None of that is true," I start and Katniss cuts me off.

"I know that, but does she?" This stops me. Katniss did say that she was over thinking it. "What are you going to do?"

"I dunno. I mean when I went to talk to her this morning she said that she needed some space, that she couldn't handle it right then."

Katniss chews her lip for a little before she responds. "Sounds to me like you just need to give her a couple days to cool down, and then talk to her."

"That's what I was planning on doing anyways." I glance at the clock on the wall and groan. "I gotta go, have to go meet Beetee." She bids her goodbyes and I leave, going downstairs to special defense.

* * *

All through Special Defense I'm distracted. I nearly blow myself up trying to set a wire in the right place. I cut my hand on a shard of metal and have to go to the hospital for it to get cleaned. So now, I'm walking around with a bandage on my hand and it's annoying me greatly.

I eat dinner really early because I know Madge eats later because of her schedule. On the way back from dinner, I spot Madge and Bristel coming from training. Immediately, I turn to Rory and start talking to him. He doesn't question why I don't look at Madge, but I know I'll be hearing about it as soon as they are out of earshot.

Madge doesn't look at me, and I don't look at her.

* * *

_A/N: So I kinda wrote this chapter because I'm sort of pissed at my track coach. Sorry bout that. But, do y'all understand why Madge is a little upset? I really hope y'all see it. Anyways, thoughts?_


	13. Chapter 13

"What was that about?" Rory asks the minute Madge is out of earshot.

"She's mad at me. Or upset. Or something. I don't know." I grumble as we continue to the elevator.

"Yeah she looked pretty hurt when she found out what you were doing." He says and I turn to him.

"Did you talk to her about it?"

He nods. "She said that she was pretty upset about it, considering you told some people but didn't tell her at all."

"I guess I'll just give her a few days to calm down and then apologize for it." I know I screwed up, yeah I know that. I just.. I don't know. I have a bad feeling about this whole thing. That it will taint our relationship. More than anything, I just need to talk to her and apologize, but I can't do that when she needs time to cool down.

* * *

It hasn't even been twelve hours and I'm already thinking about going back to talk to Madge. The whole night I was up trying to sleep, but I just couldn't. I keep getting irritated with myself and the guilt is setting in. I know now that I should've told her from the beginning, I should've known that it would've ended up with her finding out anyways.

Thom voices his concerns over this during training. "Man, Gale, you're going to end up blowing yourself up later."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You're really distracted." He mutters, shooting another dummy.

"Do you think I didn't realize this?" I grumble angrily and he sighs.

"Just go talk to her, you're going to drive yourself insane."

"She said that she wanted some time to herself, and I'm going to respect that." I tell him and he rolls his eyes.

"Bristel told me that she's been muttering to herself a lot now. About trust or something." I groan and rub my eyes. "Just.. just go get her some flowers or something."

"Yeah because District 13 has a wide expanse of flowers, Thom." I whack him upside the head, and he curses at me.

"Just use your special badge or something to get them." He grumbles and my eyes widen.

"That's actually a great idea."

"Oh god." Thom starts, "You're actually going to?"

"I dunno, maybe. In a couple of days, maybe."

"You're crazy." He murmurs under his breath and I give him a look at he chuckles.

"You know, this isn't actually very funny, Thom." I sigh, putting my gun down and staring at him. "What if you and Bristel were fighting?"

"Well I wasn't the one who hid something from my girlfriend. That was you." I groan. He's definitely got me there.

"I'm done. I can't concentrate on this right now." I grumble, setting my gun down and stalking out of the room. I know Thom is probably rolling his eyes at me behind my back, but frankly, I don't care. I need to get out of this damn district but Coin discontinued that for Katniss and I after she got shot in 2.

Traveling back to my house, I run into Bristel.

"Gale," she starts, but I cut her off.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I screwed up. I should've told her about it, I know."

"Well I'm glad that you realize this." Bristel pauses and pulls me to a different hallway. "She's so upset about this, Gale. You lied to her. You do understand that it's going to take a lot to gain back her trust, correct?"

"I know, Bristel, and it's killing me too."

"Well then go talk to her!" I glare at her.

"She said that she wanted some space, so I'm going to give it to her."

"Do you honestly think that she wants some space?"

"That's what I assumed she wanted," I start quickly, but I'm cut off by Bristel.

"God you're an idiot. She doesn't want space, she just wants to talk to you. She really does. So I would say that you should probably get your ass over there and apologize to her."

I swallow and then nod. "Is she at her place?" Bristel nods her head.

"She should be. Said she was gonna go sleep until next week." I have to stop myself from grinning. That is something Madge would say. "Just go Gale." Bristel finally prods me and I scowl at her before I hurry on my way.

I try to delay from going to see Madge as long as I can by hurrying back to my house. Posy grabs onto my leg as soon as I'm in the house and I trudge around with a five-year-old clinging onto me. I can see her laughing so that's fine. Vick jumps onto my back. "What is this, Attack Gale Day?"

"Yeah!" Posy giggles and I grin before dropping Vick onto the couch and Posy releases me.

"Oh you think that's funny?" I ask the two giggling children and they nod. "That's funny." I pause, and cross my arms over my chest. "But it'll be even funnier when I do this." I reach down and throw them over my shoulders like they're sacks of potatoes. I grunt a little under their combined weight. Now that we're in 13 and they get full meals every breakfast, lunch, and dinner, they're both definitely growing. Posy was always small for her age.

They're both laughing and screaming and pounding on my back as I spin around. I'm actually laughing myself.

"Gale!" Vick yells, but his words are interrupted by some more giggles. "Put us down!" He continues yelling and Posy laughs some more. It's good to hear them laughing. District 13 isn't the brightest place in Panem, I'll say that. I finally drop the two of them onto the couch and they collapse into more giggles.

"Again!" I laugh as Posy jumps onto me again.

"Posy, I really have something to do now." She pouts for a second and I grin at her. "I'll be back soon and then I'll do it again, okay?" She still doesn't look satisfied, so I quickly come up with a lie that Vick will tell her a story for now and she's happy. Vick gives me a look and I grin.

"Gotta take some of the weight of making her happy, Vick." I ruffle his hair and he frowns at me before flattening his hair.

I quickly walk into the small kitchen to find my mom and I am completely surprised when I find Madge in there with her. My eyes widen and I immediately back out of the room as both of the women stare at me with eyes wide. Hurrying back into the living room, I get out of the house as fast as I can and lean against the wall. I don't expect Madge to walk out quickly after me.

"Madge," I say, but she ignores me and continues to walk away. "_Madge_." I say again, following after her, but she quickens her pace. "Madge!" I call after her, jogging to catch up with her before the reaches the elevator.

"What?" She hisses, turning around and glaring at me. She looks tired. Extremely tired. There are bags under her eyes and she just looks _exhausted_.

"Please listen to me, Madge." She doesn't say anything, just continues to stare at me. "Please." After a minute of silence, she nods.

"Make it quick."

I pause for a moment, gathering my thoughts. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Madge."

"Sorry won't cut it, Gale. You _lied_ to me. You lied to me and you knew you were doing it." She forces out, not dropping her gaze. Hell her eyes are determined.

"I know, I know, I just... I thought you'd look at me differently when you found out that I was making bombs.

"If I love you Gale then I wouldn't look at you differently. I thought that _you_ of all people would know that." She hisses again and swallows thickly. I know she's biting back tears. I've seen this face before. It's the face when she's trying not to crack and break into tears. It's the face when she doesn't know what to do. When she has no clue what's going on.

"Madge, I," I break off and swallow. Hell I'm biting back tears too. I try again. "Madge, I'm sorry. I'll understand though, if you never want to see me again, though. I don't deserve you anyways." I finally say, and I know it's true. She's so pure, and amazing, and then when you see me you wonder 'Why is she with him?'. I'm nothing special. Just for some reason she fell in love with me. And now the one thing that I'm sure about is breaking away from me in front of my eyes.

"Gale, I can't do this right now. I can't. I'm sorry." She croaks out and turns away.

"Wait." She turns around and stares some more, eyes unreadable. "Tell me when you can talk to me about it." She nods slowly. And then walks away, leaving me standing there alone.

* * *

_I haven't seen Madge in a couple days. She hasn't been over and she hasn't been at school. I ask Bristel about it and she shrugs, saying that the last time she saw her was with me a couple days ago. _

_Quickly, I hurry into the woods and pick some strawberries for her. Maybe she's sick. That's the only logical explanation I can think of, and I'm not that great when it comes to thinking. _

_When I finally get back to town, it's oddly quiet. No one's stirring. Maybe it's because all of the children are at school. I should be at school, but I'm leaving in a few weeks to go to the mines, skipping now won't kill me. _

_Slowly, I trudge to the back door of the Mayor's house, and knock slowly. I'm praying that Madge is the one to open the door. I stand there for a couple of minutes before I ring the bell. There's some stomping of feet down the stairs and finally the door opens. Madge is a mess. Her hair is thrown up into a really messy bun and it kind of looks like she hasn't showered. Her eyes are puffy and red and there are bags present under them. _

_She immediately plows into me and buries her face into my chest. _

_"Well hello to you too." I chuckle, and she doesn't respond. I pull her into the house and set the strawberries onto the pristine kitchen counter before sitting her down on the couch. She sniffles a couple of times and I cup her cheeks. "What's wrong?" A couple of tears leaked down her face and I quickly wipe them away and kiss her now. "Sh, don't cry. Tell me what's wrong." Pulling her onto my lap, I wrap my arms around her waist. "Talk to me."_

_She takes a shaking breath and then finally talks. " A couple days ago, I came home and my father told me that my mom had gotten worse. She's dying. She's dying, Gale." She buries her face into my chest and I sit there shocked for a few moments before tightening my grip on her. _

_"I'm sorry. Madge, if there's anything I could do about it, I would." I murmur, smoothing her hair as her hands fist into my shirt. "I'm so sorry."_

_"It's not your fault. Don't apologize." She mumbles, looking up at me. She has no clue what to do. None at all. _

_"If you're in pain, I'm in pain, Madge." I press a kiss to the top of her head. The front door opens and I look up to see Mayor Undersee entering the house. He gives a double take that I'm here and then sees why I'm here. He gives me a curt nod, and then mouths thank you to me. He disappears up the stairs and I sigh. _

_"He's never here for me. Never. He's always too busy working. He never has time for me, his own daughter."_

_"Madge," I start but she cuts me off._

_"And when she dies, he's going to completely cut himself off from me. She's the only thing that keeps us together anymore. I'm not going to have anyone!" She chokes and I quickly press a gentle kiss to her lips._

_"I will still be here. I'm not going to leave you." Her chin quivers and she buries her face again into my chest. I lean back and lay us down onto the large couch. The rest of the day I just hold her. Hold her against my chest and don't let go. We don't move most of the day, unless it's the shift our position, or to get food. Finally, Madge falls asleep. _

_Carefully, I carry her up the stairs and into her room. She's very light. I take it she hasn't eaten it much, plus she's already so skinny anyways. It can't be good for her. I gently put her down on the bed and pull the sheets and covers over her body. She looks so peaceful and carefree when she's asleep. But I know she's not. Underneath her exterior is a girl who has so many secrets and so much to unravel that it's almost impossible. But I don't mind. I'd like to know about her, figure everything out. _

_I press a kiss to her forehead and hurry out of the room, turning off the light and shutting the door. _

* * *

_A/N: I'm sorry. I've literally had no idea what to do with this story. I know where I want it to go, but I just don't know how to get it to where it needs to be, if you understand. Anyways: If you have any ideas, tell me, I'll try to fit them in to it! I know the beginning of this chapter probably sucks, but I couldn't think of anything else! Sorry if you hate it!_


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: I'm trying to update this more.**

* * *

Three days pass. Three entire days. Madge doesn't even try to contact me to talk about anything. Whenever I see her in the hallways, we completely ignore each other. I'm giving her space, even if it's killing me. I can't stand not talking to her. I tell her nearly everything. And there definitely a lot that I need to tell her. Thom and Bristel are fighting as well now. Something that's really bad. Thom won't talk to me about it, and if Thom won't then Bristel is definitely out of the question.

It's reflection, and I'm sitting on the small couch when Posy crawls into my lap.

"Gale?" She asks, snuggling closer to me. God I love my sister.

"Yeah, Pose?"

"Where's Madge?" And there's the catch.

"I-well, Posy, we're-" Oh the fun of explaining stuff to a five year old. She asks so many questions though. Almost too many. "We're taking a break, Posy." I finally decide on and she looks puzzled.

"Why? Did you fight?" Sometimes, I swear she understands what the rest of the family is talking about.

"Yeah, a little." I tell her.

"Why?"

"I lied to her." Posy's eyes widen.

"But lying is bad! Mama always tells us not to lie."

"I know, Pose. I shouldn't have lied. But I did, and I know now that I shouldn't have lied to her." I tell her and she crosses her arms and pouts. "Now what are you pouting about?" I poke her side and she cracks a smile before poking me back. Yes, we definitely need to be more careful with what we say around her. My mom tells her that it's time for bed and she takes her from me.

I'm just waiting for her to come back out and talk to me about Madge, but she doesn't. I know she's thinking about it, though.

Eventually, I'm one of the last ones up. Rory finally disappears into the room he shares with Vick, and then I stay up for another hour. I slowly trudge to my room and collapse onto the bed. I don't even know why I try to sleep anymore. It doesn't happen. Either I can't sleep, or I have a nightmare. Madge was usually the one to console me when I woke up in the middle of the night screaming, at least since she made it here on foot.

I do finally fall asleep, only to be woken up about three hours later by a harsh knocking on the front door.

* * *

I decide not to move. It's too much work to move anymore. Plus since the war is approaching, our trainers have been pushing us harder and further in training and it sucks. I hear my mom go to the front door and there's a couple moments of talking. Then padding of feet down the hallway, and some whispering. A knock on my door. I groan and stand slowly before opening reluctantly.

I'm not expecting what I see outside of my door in the hallway.

Madge.

Madge, with a tear-stained face, red and frantic eyes and a shaking body. "Madge? What're you..." I trail off sleepily before looking at my mom who's standing in the hallway. She shrugs a little before disappearing into her room. "C'mere." I say, and Madge quickly follows me into my room. I sit on the side of the bed and she sits next to me. "What's wrong?" I ask and she quickly crawls into my lap. While I'm welcome to her touch, it's odd that she's touching me when we haven't spoken in three days. "Talk to me. What's wrong?"

"Nightmare." She mumbles and I can feel her tears soaking through my shirt already.

"What was it about?" I ask, tangling my fingers in her hair.

"D-district 12 and t-the bombing." She chokes out. "Y-you were trying to get me a-and the house c-collapsed on you and.." She trails off and buries her face further into my chest. My heart aches for her. I've had that dream thousands of times. Except I was about to get to Madge when the house collapses on her. Not fun.

"It's okay, Madge. It's fine. They can't get me here." I murmur to her and she just holds onto me.

After a little, she finally calms down. She stares at me and I stare back. I'm the first the break the silence.

"I'm sorry." For two ways actually. "I'm so sorry, Madge. You have to understand that."

She's quiet for a really long time. I'm beginning to think that she didn't even hear me and I'm about to say it again, when she says something.

"I know." She pauses and plays with her fingers. "Gale, listen to me." I nod and she continues. "If you _ever_ lie to me again, you will not get another chance. I will end it right then and there, even if it hurts."

"Okay," I start, so I can finish my apology but she keeps talking.

"Gale, I love you so much. If you're going to keep doing this to me, then I don't know what I'm going to do." She stares at me, and it seems like she's done, so I start.

"I'm an idiot. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me. I know it's cheesy, but it's true. Madge, all my life everything that could go wrong, has gone wrong. You're the only thing that's made this worthwhile. Do I deserve you? No. Do you deserve better? Yes. But you've stuck with me. I have no clue how, but you've done it. And now I'm rambling, so I'm just gonna get to the point. I'm so sorry for everything that I've done to you. I've never meant any of it. If you want to walk away right now, go ahead. Find someone who can actually provide for you. Someone who you can start a family with, have a better life."

The thing is, since a little before the bombs dropped, the only person I could imagine starting a family with is her. I've always pictured Madge, holding a little boy. That's what I've pictured as family.

She stares at me for a moment before she tightens her grip on me. "But I want to have a family with you. I don't care if you can't provide for me, screw that, we'll figure it out. Gale, you of all people should know that I don't care."

In that moment, Madge is the only person that matters. Our lips collide in a clash of passion. I love this girl so much. After a few moments of our mouths running over one another, her tongue begs permission to enter my mouth. I let her. Her nimble fingers pry at the bottom of my shirt and I sit up so she can pull it off of me. My mouth slides down her neck and I suck on her collarbone. She squeaks and I grin into her shoulder. I tug her shirt over her head and her fingers grip onto my waistband. Goddamn, she's beautiful. My hands want to be everywhere at once.

"Hell, I love you." I mumble against her lips and she grins. She somehow manages to flip us over so she's straddling me. I'm pulling her down towards me when she suddenly starts laughing.

"What?" I ask, completely puzzled. "What are you laughing at?"

"What are we doing, Gale?" I raise an eyebrow at her as she sits up.

"We're kissing?"

"No duh, but.." She trails off and just laughs. Eventually I join in and we collapse back on my bed, laughing. I roll so I'm facing her and I smile. I'm trying to pay attention to her face, but with the amount of skin that's exposed right now, it's kind of impossible. "Gale," she teases, tugging me to her, "Another time," she murmurs, "Not now. When we're alone." I smirk, and she smiles.

"Am I forgiven?" I ask softly, and her smile falters for a moment but she nods.

"For now. Don't ever do that again, okay?" I nod quickly. If Madge is known for anything, it's being able to never forget anything. She'll mock me about this until the day she dies.

Madge crawls across the bed and grabs my shirt before pulling it over her head. Then, kicks her pants off and crawls back over to me.

"Hell, Madge. You're gonna drive me crazy." She grins and I tug her to me. "I gotta get up early tomorrow morning, but I'll see you at breakfast."

Her blonde eyebrows furrow. "Where are you going?"

"I have some last meeting about the war." My stomach drops and I sit up. My head immediately goes into my hands. "I leave in two days." I force out and turn back to her. She's in disbelief. So am I, really. I've been so caught up with figuring out how to fix the mess with Madge that I didn't think about when I was leaving.

"No. No, no, no." She says softly and I rest my head on her shoulder.

"I have too. I don't want too, but I have too." I tell her gently, and she takes a shaking breath.

"So does that mean that I leave too?"

"No, you're in the second wave. You have about three days after I leave before you do." Her face falls. Trust me, I don't want to have to leave my family for who knows how long. I just hope that the war isn't long enough to cause a lot more trouble than I need.

"Oh." She says quietly, before snuggling closer to me. "I'm not letting you go until you leave." She wraps her arms around my chest and I twist mine around her back.

"I'm fine with that." I mumble and she falls asleep pretty quickly after that. I don't though. If I'm not going to see her for weeks, months even, I want to memorize her face. The curve of her nose, the pink of her cheeks, everything. I don't want to forget a thing.

I fall asleep as well, and it's literally the first night in a really long time that I haven't had a nightmare.

* * *

The next morning, we receive our uniforms. They're basic gray things. As usual. We're the only district that will have uniforms, unless we have enough to pass around to the rest of the Rebels. We're assigned a military backpack to keep things in. A canteen, some bandages, and a map are some of the items we receive. We all get a gun and a knife to strap to our belt.

Coin tells us all to put our bags in the hovercraft that will transport us to the Capitol. We're assigned hovercrafts by squad number. Since I'm on the "Star Squad" we're in the front of the line of hovercrafts. Katniss gives me a grim nod. She must also understand that we might die.

"You ready for this?" Finnick asks as he hangs up his backpack.

"As I'll ever be." I reply and we head out of the hovercraft.

"Listen. The zones that we're going to are wired like the Hunger Games." Finnick says, staring at the hovercraft. "It's like in the Games. Each area is stuck with something else. Something that could cause a disaster."

"Oh." I reply. Leave it to the Capitol to do this.

"I'm not telling Annie." He mumbles bitterly.

"What? Why?"

"Because if she knows that I'm going into another thing that's basically the Hunger Games, she'll panic more than she already is. I don't want that." I nod. I know that I have to tell Madge. Partly because she needs to know what she's going into, and because I'm not keeping anything from her anymore.

* * *

_A/N: Okay, I'm back on track. Next chapter is the last chapter before the war. I have most of it planned out. Expect a few more chapters, but I'm not sure yet. As I'm coming to the end of this story, kind of, I'd like some feedback on what I'm writing. I don't know if y'all like it or not, and I want to know. Thoughts?_


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